Jotham King of Judah

Study notes

Jotham receives the same approval given his father for conduct measured by the LORD, yet the high places continue in use while he adds a gate to the temple. The account records that the LORD begins sending Rezin and Pekah against Judah in those days, framing the military threat as divine initiative that starts under an upright king. The reign ends with orderly succession to Ahaz, leaving the combination of approved fidelity, persistent local worship, and emerging external pressure as the situation inherited by the next ruler.

What is Jotham King of Judah about?

Jotham son of Uzziah begins to reign in Judah during the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah over Israel. He is twenty-five at his accession and rules sixteen years from Jerusalem, with Jerusha daughter of Zadok named as his mother. The account states that he did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD, following the pattern set by Uzziah his father. At the same time the high places stay untouched, so that the people continue sacrificing and burning offerings there, while Jotham himself builds the upper gate of the house of the LORD." The rest of his acts are left to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. In those same days the LORD begins to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah. Jotham sleeps with his fathers, receives burial in the city of David, and leaves the throne to Ahaz his son.

These verses mark the moment when external pressure on Judah starts under a king whose record is otherwise approved. The combination of temple construction and persistent high-place worship, followed at once by the first mention of the LORD stirring northern and Aramean forces, frames the short reign as the quiet onset of trouble that will intensify under the next ruler.

Where does this passage sit in 2 Kings?

Jotham’s accession notice opens by anchoring his start to the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah, the same Israelite king whose campaigns against Judah have just been summarized in the preceding verses. This tight chronological link continues the book’s practice of interleaving the two kingdoms’ timelines so that each ruler’s record is read against the other’s actions. The formula that follows—age at accession, length of reign, mother’s name, and the verdict that Jotham did what was upright according to all that Uzziah his father had done—repeats the exact phrasing used for Uzziah in 15:1-7, thereby extending the line of partial reform that began two generations earlier.

The single new detail supplied here, the building of the upper gate of the house of the LORD, stands immediately beside the unchanged statement that the high places were not removed. That juxtaposition keeps the reader inside the same tension already noted for Uzziah: temple construction proceeds while local shrines remain active. The next sentence then records that in those same days the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah. The verb “began” signals an escalation rather than a new initiative; the military pressure already active under Pekah now receives explicit divine authorization and will continue into the reign of Ahaz.

The closing regnal notice—Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David—matches the standard burial formula used for every Davidic king up to this point. Its immediate sequel, the accession of Ahaz, therefore places the reader at the threshold of a reign in which the same Aramean-Israelite coalition will intensify its assault. The brief notice thus functions less as an isolated portrait and more as the hinge that carries the northern threat forward while preserving the pattern of qualified faithfulness that has characterized Judah’s kings since the division of the kingdom.

How is the passage structured?

The verses open by fixing Jotham’s start in the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah, then supply the standard regnal data of age, length of rule, and maternal lineage. From this formal notice the account turns at once to the summary judgment that Jotham did what was upright according to all that Uzziah his father had done. That positive statement is immediately qualified by the report that the high places remained in use and that the people continued sacrificing and burning offerings there. The same sentence records Jotham’s construction of the upper gate of the house of the LORD, placing a single concrete act of temple work beside the unchanged cultic practice outside it.

A conventional formula then directs readers to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah for everything else Jotham did. Immediately after that formula the narrative introduces a new development: in those days the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah. The sentence stands apart from the preceding regnal evaluation and from the chronicle notice, marking the first explicit mention of external military pressure during Jotham’s years. The final verse returns to the expected closing pattern, stating that Jotham slept with his fathers, was buried in the city of David, and was succeeded by his son Ahaz.

Across the seven verses the movement therefore runs from accession and character summary, through an internal contrast between approved conduct and tolerated high places, to a terse chronicle reference, then to the onset of divine pressure, and finally to the death-and-succession notice. The single sentence about Rezin and Pekah interrupts the usual regnal frame and supplies the only forward-looking element before the account passes to Ahaz.

What is the historical background?

Jotham’s sixteen-year reign is dated by reference to the northern king Pekah, whose own rule overlapped a period of growing pressure on Judah from both Israel and Aram. The account places the start of that pressure explicitly in Jotham’s time, when the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah. Such coordinated action by neighboring rulers reflects the pattern of shifting alliances that characterized the later decades of the divided kingdoms, with smaller states caught between larger powers to the north and east.

The note that the high places were not removed points to a long-standing Judahite practice of conducting sacrifices and burning offerings at local shrines outside Jerusalem. Even kings described as doing what was upright in the eyes of the LORD left these sites intact, allowing the people to continue using them. Jotham’s own building work focused instead on the upper gate of the house of the LORD, an addition to the temple complex that suggests attention to the capital’s fortifications and cultic access rather than the elimination of outlying worship locations.

The naming of Jotham’s mother, Jerusha daughter of Zadok, follows the pattern used for several Judahite kings and indicates that the queen mother’s lineage could carry political or priestly weight. Zadok’s name links her to a family already associated with temple service in earlier generations. The formula that Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father reflects standard royal burial practice within the dynastic tombs located in Jerusalem.

The reference to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah signals that the present account draws selectively from longer court records. Those annals presumably preserved additional details of construction projects, diplomatic exchanges, and military movements that the writer of Kings chose not to repeat. The transition to Ahaz occurs without further comment on the circumstances of the handover, leaving the political and cultic situation Jotham left behind to be taken up under the next reign.

What does this passage teach about God?

Jotham receives the same verdict given to Uzziah: he did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD. The repetition of that phrase across father and son shows that the LORD continues to measure each king by the same standard of fidelity rather than by accumulated royal achievement. At the same time the text records that the high places stayed in use, so the people kept offering sacrifices outside the single sanctuary. The LORD's approval of the king therefore does not extend to every feature of national worship; the persistence of those sites marks a boundary the king did not cross.

The same paragraph states that the LORD began to send Rezin and Pekah against Judah. The verb attributes the military threat directly to divine initiative, not to the independent decisions of foreign rulers. This sending occurs while Jotham is still described as upright, which indicates that the LORD's engagement with the nation can include pressure even when the reigning king meets the basic criterion of uprightness. The action functions as a form of address that the people must interpret.

Jotham's construction of the upper gate receives brief mention as a tangible improvement to the temple area. That detail stands beside the note about the high places, showing that concrete acts of maintenance at the central sanctuary can occur without removing rival sites of worship. The LORD registers both the gate and the untouched high places in the same reign.

The account closes by recording Jotham's death and the immediate accession of Ahaz. The succession itself receives no additional comment, yet the simple statement that Ahaz reigned in his place keeps the Davidic line intact. The LORD's earlier decision to send adversaries does not cancel the promise attached to that line; the two realities sit together in the same verses.

What are the interpretive difficulties?

Jotham receives credit for doing what was upright in the eyes of the LORD according to all that Uzziah his father had done, yet the same verses state that the high places were not removed. The account supplies no further detail on whether Jotham made any attempt to end the sacrifices and offerings there or whether local custom and priestly control simply prevented such action. The text therefore leaves the precise degree of his responsibility for the continued practices open to interpretation.

The report that the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah stands directly after the notice of Jotham’s construction of the upper gate. Nothing in the verses explains whether this pressure constitutes a response to the remaining high places, an independent development, or the start of a longer pattern that will continue under Ahaz. The narrative records the fact without assigning an explicit cause.

Jotham’s sixteen-year reign ends with the standard formula that he slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. The verses give no indication of how the military pressure from Aram and Israel affected daily life in Jerusalem or whether Jotham took any defensive measures beyond the gate project already mentioned. Later chapters will show the situation worsening, but these verses themselves do not forecast that outcome.

The mother’s name, Jerusha daughter of Zadok, appears without any accompanying comment on her influence or family connections. Readers receive the information yet receive no guidance on whether it carries political or religious significance. The same restraint appears in the reference to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah, which the text invokes without quoting or summarizing its contents.

These silences keep the focus on what the verses actually state: Jotham’s upright conduct alongside the persistence of the high places, the onset of external pressure, and the orderly transfer of the throne to Ahaz. The passage does not resolve how these elements fit together beyond recording their coexistence during his reign.

Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.