2 Chronicles 26

Chapter context

What is happening in 2 Chronicles 26?

templereformprayerjudgment

2 Chronicles 26 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as reforms and failures. Second Chronicles recounts Solomon’s temple, the Judahite kings, reform movements, the fall of Jerusalem, and Cyrus’s decree of return. Read this chapter with the wider themes of temple, reform, and prayer in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

¹ Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. ² He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. ³ Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. ⁴ And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did. ⁵ And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper. ⁶ And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines. ⁷ And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Mehunims. ⁸ And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened himself exceedingly. ⁹ Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them. ¹⁰ Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry. ¹¹ Moreover Uzziah had an host of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their account by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains. ¹² The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valour were two thousand and six hundred. ¹³ And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. ¹⁴ And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones. ¹⁵ And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong. ¹⁶ But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. ¹⁷ And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: ¹⁸ And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. ¹⁹ Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar. ²⁰ And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. ²¹ And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land. ²² Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write. ²³ So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.

Study helps

Glossary

Amaziah Person v. 1, 4: Strengthened by Jehovah. (1. ) A Levite, son of Hilkiah, of the descendants of Ethan the Merarite ( 1 Chr. 6:45 ). (2. ) The son and successor of Joash, and eighth king of the separate kingdom of Judah ( 2 Kings 14:1-4 ).
Elath Place v. 2: Grove; trees, ( Deut. 2:8 ), also in plural form Eloth ( 1 Kings 9:26 , etc. ); called by the Greeks and Romans Elana; a city of Idumea, on the east, i. e., the Elanitic, gulf, or the Gulf of Akabah, of the Red Sea. Modern identification: Aqaba.
Jecoliah Person v. 3: Able through Jehovah, the wife of King Amaziah, and mother of King Uzziah ( 2 Chr. 26:3 ).
Jerusalem Place v. 3, 9, 15: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Zechariah Person v. 5: Jehovah is renowned or remembered. (1. ) A prophet of Judah, the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. Like Ezekiel, he was of priestly extraction. He describes himself (1:1) as.
Ashdod Place v. 6: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tel Ashdod.
Gath Place v. 6: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tell es Safi.
Jabneel Place v. 6: Built by God. (1. ) A town in the north boundary of Judah ( Josh. 15:11 ), called afterwards by the Greeks Jamnia, the modern Yebna, 11 miles south of Jaffa. After the fall of Jerusalem. Modern identification: Yibna.
Philistia Place v. 6: Biblical region. Modern identification: Tel Ashkelon.
Gurbaal Place v. 7: Sojourn of Baal, a place in Arabia ( 2 Chr. 26:7 ) where there was probably a temple of Baal. Modern identification: Buseira.
Egypt Place v. 8: The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. Modern identification: Ain Shams.
Angle Place v. 9: Biblical structure. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Corner Gate Place v. 9: Biblical gate. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Valley Gate Place v. 9: Biblical gate. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Carmel Place v. 10: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Khirbet el Kirmil.
Shephelah Place v. 10: Biblical region. Modern identification: Shephelah.
Hananiah Tribe v. 11: Jehovah has given. (1. ) A chief of the tribe of Benjamin ( 1 Chr. 8:24 ). (2. ) One of the sons of Heman ( 1 Chr. 25:4 , 23). (3. ) One of Uzziah’s military officers ( 2 Chr. 26:11 ).
Azariah Person v. 17, 20: Whom Jehovah helps. (1. ) Son of Ethan, of the tribe of Judah ( 1 Chr. 2:8 ). (2. ) Son of Ahimaaz, who succeeded his grandfather Zadok as high priest ( 1 Chr. 6:9 ; 1 Kings 4:2 ) in the days of Solomon.
Amoz Person v. 22: Strong, the father of the prophet Isaiah ( 2 Kings 19:2 , 20; 20:1; Isa. 1:1 ; 2:1 ). As to his personal history little is positively known. He is supposed by some to have been the “man of God” spoken of in 2 Chr. 25:7 , 8.
Isaiah Person v. 22: (Heb. Yesh’yahu, i. e., “the salvation of Jehovah”). (1. ) The son of Amoz ( Isa. 1:1 ; 2:1 ), who was apparently a man of humble rank.