CHAPTER 26

¹And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, when he was sixteen years old, and made him king in Amaziah his father’s stead. ²He built up Eloth and settled it for Judah after the king lay with his fathers. ³Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he became king and fifty-two years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jecoliah from Jerusalem. ⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as all that Amaziah his father had done. ⁵And he sought out God in the days of Zechariah, who imparted instruction in the fear of God, and in the days he sought out the LORD, God made him prosper. ⁶And he sallied forth and did battle against the Philistines and breached the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built towns near Ashdod and among the Philistines. ⁷And God aided him against the Philistines and against the Arabs dwelling in Gur-Baal, and the Meunites. ⁸And the Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah, and his name went as far as the approach to Egypt, for he had become very strong. ⁹And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem by the Corner Gate and by the Valley Gate and by the Angle, and reinforced them. ¹⁰And he built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns, for he had abundant cattle and farmers and vintners on the plain and on the mountains and on the cropland, for he loved the soil. ¹¹And Uzziah had a force doing battle mustered for the army as a troop in the number of their complement under Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the overseer under the direction of Hananiah of the king’s commanders. ¹²The full number of the heads of the patriarchal houses for the warriors was two thousand six hundred. ¹³And under them was an army force of three hundred thousand five hundred doing battle with the strength of the force to aid the king against the enemy. ¹⁴And Uzziah readied for all the army shields and spears and helmets and armor and bows and slingstones. ¹⁵And he made cunningly fashioned devices to be in the towers in Jerusalem for shooting arrows and large stones. And his name went out afar, for he was wondrously aided, and so he grew strong. ¹⁶And as he grew strong, he became so overweening as to act ruinously, and he betrayed the LORD his God and came into the LORD’s temple to burn incense on the incense altar. ¹⁷And Azariah the priest came in after him, and with him were priests to the LORD, eighty valiant men. ¹⁸And they stood up against King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD but for the Aaronide priests who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have betrayed, and it is no glory for you from the LORD God.” ¹⁹And Uzziah was angry, the censer for burning incense in his hand, and as he raged against the priests, skin blanch broke out on his forehead in front of the priests upon the incense altar. ²⁰And Azariah the high priest turned toward him with all the priests, and look, he was stricken with skin blanch on his forehead, and they rushed him out of there, and he, too, pressed to go out, for the LORD had infected him. ²¹And King Uzziah was stricken with skin blanch to his dying day, and he stayed in the quarantine house, for it was decreed from the house of the LORD, and Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land. ²²And the rest of the acts of Uzziah, early and late, Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet wrote down. ²³And Uzziah lay with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belongs to the kings, for they said, he was stricken with skin blanch. And Jotham his son became king in his stead.