2 Chronicles 26

¹ All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

² He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after the king rested with his ancestors.

³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother's name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem.

⁴ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.

⁵ He set himself to seek God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.

⁶ He went out to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines.

⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.

⁸ The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread all the way to the border of Egypt, because he had grown very powerful.

⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them.

¹⁰ He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had large herds in the foothills and on the plain. He had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.

¹¹ Uzziah had an army of fighting men that went out to war by divisions, according to the muster taken by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's commanders.

¹² The total number of family heads over these fighting men was 2,600.

¹³ Under their command was an army of 307,500 men trained for war, a powerful force to help the king against the enemy.

¹⁴ Uzziah equipped the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows, and sling stones.

¹⁵ In Jerusalem he made machines designed by skilled workers to be mounted on the towers and the corner defenses, for shooting arrows and hurling large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was helped in wonderful ways until he became strong.

¹⁶ But when he had become strong, his heart grew proud, to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

¹⁷ Azariah the priest went in after him, together with eighty brave priests of the LORD.

¹⁸ They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That belongs to the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and the LORD God will not honor you for this."

¹⁹ Uzziah, who was holding a censer ready to burn incense, flew into a rage. But while he was raging at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in front of the priests in the temple of the LORD, beside the altar of incense.

²⁰ When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned toward him, they saw the leprosy on his forehead, and they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had struck him.

²¹ King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, cut off from the temple of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

²² The rest of the events of Uzziah's reign, from beginning to end, were written down by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

²³ Uzziah rested with his ancestors and was buried near them in a burial field that belonged to the kings, for people said, "He had leprosy." And his son Jotham became king in his place.