2 Chronicles 26

King Uzziah’s Rise & Fall (Pride Gets You)

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

2 He rebuilt Eloth and brought it back to Judah after the king passed away.

3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mama’s name was Jecholiah from Jerusalem.

4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just like his pops Amaziah had done.

5 He kept seeking God in the days of Zechariah, who understood visions from God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him successful.

Uzziah’s Military & Building Success

6 He rolled out and fought against the Philistines and tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. He built cities in the territory of Ashdod and 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 brought gifts to Uzziah, and his fame spread all the way to the border of Egypt, because he became super powerful.

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

10 He also built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns, because he had a lot of livestock in the Shephelah and in the plain. He had farmers and vineyard workers in the hills and fertile lands, because he loved farming.

11 Uzziah also had an army of warriors, who went out to war in divisions, counted by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the official, under the command of Hananiah, one of the king’s officers.

12 The total number of the chief heads of families, mighty warriors, was two thousand six hundred.

13 Under their command was an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred fighting men, who fought with great power to help the king against the enemy.

14 Uzziah got ready for their whole army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slingstones.

15 He also made machines in Jerusalem, invented by skilled men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, because he was miraculously helped until he became strong.

Uzziah’s Pride and Punishment

16 But when he got strong, his heart got arrogant, leading to his downfall. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.

17 Azariah the priest, and eighty other brave priests of the Lord, went in after him.

18 They stood against King Uzziah and told him, “Listen, Uzziah, this is not your job to burn incense to the Lord! That is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense! Get out of the sanctuary, because you acted unfaithfully, and it will not bring you honor from the Lord God!”

19 Uzziah, who had an incense censer in his hand to burn incense, got mad. As he was getting mad at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead right there in front of the priests in the Lord’s temple, by the altar of incense.

20 When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, look, he had leprosy on his forehead! So they quickly rushed him out of there, and he himself rushed to get out, because the Lord had struck him.

21 King Uzziah remained a leper until the day he died. He lived in a separate house as a leper, because he was cut off from the Lord’s temple. And his son Jotham was in charge of the king’s palace, judging the people of the land.

22 As for the rest of Uzziah’s story, from beginning to end, Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, wrote it.

23 Uzziah passed away and they buried him with his ancestors in the burial field that belonged to the kings, because they said, “He is a leper.” And his son Jotham took over as king.