2 *Chronicles 26

₁All the people of Judah took Uzziah and they made him king after his father Amaziah. Uzziah was 16 years old then. ₂He took back the town of Elath for Judah and he repaired the town again. Uzziah did this after Amaziah died. ₃Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for 52 years. His mother's name was Jekoliah. She came from Jerusalem. ₄Uzziah did what the Lord loved. He lived like his father Amaziah had done. ₅Uzziah tried to serve God while Zechariah lived. Zechariah was the person who taught Uzziah to understand what God wants. The Lord was with Uzziah and He blessed him for as long as he served the Lord. ₆Uzziah went to war_against the Philistines. He defeated them and he broke down the walls of the towns of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod and he built other towns in the land of the Philistines near Ashdod. ₇God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians in Gur-Baal and against the Meunite people. ₈The Ammonites had to pay taxes to Uzziah and all the people knew about him, as far as the border of Egypt. Uzziah's army became very big and strong. ₉He built strong towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the corner of the wall. ₁₀He also built towers in the desert and he dug a lot of water-wells because he had a lot of animals in the lowlands and on the Highveld. He loved to farm and he had a lot of people who worked in his fields and his vineyards in the mountains and in the valleys. ₁₁Uzziah had an army of good soldiers who were in groups. Jeiel and Maaseiah were the secretary and the chief_officer. They counted the men and put them into groups. Hananiah was their leader. He was an official of the king. ₁₂There were 2 600 leaders of families who had to lead the soldiers. ₁₃They were the officers of the army of 307 500 men who were all good soldiers. These men had to help the king fight against the enemy. ₁₄Uzziah gave weapons to all the men in the army. He gave them shields, spears, helmets, armour, bows_and_arrows and stones for their slings. ₁₅Uzziah had big weapons on the towers and corners of the city of Jerusalem that his clever artisans had made. Some of these weapons could shoot a lot of arrows and other weapons could sling big stones.

The Lord blessed Uzziah and helped him a lot and his army became very strong and he became famous. ₁₆But when Uzziah became strong and important, he became proud and that made him sin. He did not obey the laws of the Lord anymore and he went into the temple and he burnt incense on the incense-altar. ₁₇The priest Azariah and 80 of the important priests of the Lord followed Uzziah into the temple. ₁₈They went to the king and said to him: ‘Your_Majesty, you may not burn incense for the Lord. Only the priests who are descendants of Aaron and who are purified may do it. You must go out of the temple. You have done wrong. The Lord God will not honour you for doing this.’

₁₉Then Uzziah became angry. He had the incense-bowl in his hand and he wanted to burn the incense. While he became angry with the priests, he became leprous on his forehead. This happened in front of the priests in the temple at the incense-altar. ₂₀The high-priest Azariah and all the priests looked at Uzziah and they saw that he had become leprous on his forehead. They quickly took him out of the temple and he also wanted to get out immediately. This is how the Lord punished him. ₂₁King Uzziah had leprosy until the day that he died. He had to live alone in a house. He could not go near the temple because he was a leper. His son, Jotham, ruled in the palace and over the people of the land.

₂₂The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, wrote down in a book everything that happened to Uzziah, from the time when he became king until he died. ₂₃When Uzziah died, they buried him with his forefathers, but not in the tomb with the other kings, because they said that he was a leper. They buried him in a field near the other graves of the kings. His son, Jotham, became king after him.