< 2 Chronicles 26 >
1 And all the people of Judah take Uzziah (and he [is] a son of sixteen years), and cause him to reign instead of his father Amaziah.
2 He has built Eloth, and restores it to Judah after the king’s lying with his fathers.
3 Uzziah [is] a son of sixteen years in his reigning, and he has reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
4 And he does that which is right in the eyes of YHWH, according to all that his father Amaziah did,
5 and he is as one seeking God in the days of Zechariah who has understanding in visions of God: and in the days of his seeking YHWH, God has caused him to prosper.
6 And he goes forth and fights with the Philistines, and breaks down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and builds cities [around] Ashdod, and among the Philistines.
7 And God helps him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who are dwelling in Gur-Ba‘al and the Mehunim.
8 And the Ammonites give a present to Uzziah, and his name goes to the entering in of Egypt, for he strengthened himself greatly.
9 And Uzziah builds towers in Jerusalem, by the Corner Gate, and by the Valley Gate, and by the angle, and strengthens them;
10 and he builds towers in the wilderness, and digs many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the low country and in the plain, farmers and vinedressers in the mountains, and in Carmel; for he was a lover of the ground.
11 And Uzziah has a force making war, going forth to the host, by troops, in the number of their reckoning by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Masseiah the officer, by the hand of Hananiah [one] of the heads of the king.
12 The whole number of heads of the fathers of the mighty men of valor [is] two thousand and six hundred;
13 and by their hand [is] the force of the host—three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred warriors, with mighty power to give help to the king against the enemy.
14 And Uzziah prepares for them, for all the host, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, even to stones of the slings.
15 And he makes inventions in Jerusalem—a device of an inventor—to be on the towers, and on the corners, to shoot with arrows and with great stones, and his name goes out to a distance, for he has been wonderfully helped until he has been strong.
16 And at his being strong his heart has been high to destruction, and he trespasses against his God YHWH, and goes into the temple of YHWH to make incense on the altar of incense.
17 And Azariah the priest goes in after him, and with him eighty priests of YHWH, sons of valor,
18 and they stand up against Uzziah the king, and say to him, “[It is] not for you, O Uzziah, to make incense to YHWH, but for priests, sons of Aaron, who are sanctified to make incense; go forth from the sanctuary, for you have trespassed, indeed, for you [will] not [have] honor from YHWH God.”
19 And Uzziah is angry, and in his hand [is] a censer to make incense, and in his being angry with the priests—the leprosy has risen in his forehead, before the priests, in the house of YHWH, from beside the altar of incense.
20 And Azariah the head priest looks toward him, and all the priests, and behold, he [is] leprous in his forehead, and they hurry him there, and also he himself has hurried to go out, for YHWH has plagued him.
21 And Uzziah the king is a leper to the day of his death, and inhabits a separate house—a leper, for he has been cut off from the house of YHWH, and his son Jotham [is] over the house of the king, judging the people of the land.
22 And the rest of the matters of Uzziah, the first and the last, Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet has written;
23 and Uzziah lies with his fathers, and they bury him with his fathers in the field of the burying-place that the kings have, for they said, “He [is] a leper”; and his son Jotham reigns in his stead.