2 Chronicles 26

¹And all the people of Judah took Uzziah — he was sixteen years old — and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

²He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king lay down with his fathers.

³Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father had done.

⁵And he was devoted to seeking God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the visions of God; and in the days of his seeking the Lord, God made him prosper.

⁶And he went out and fought against the Philistines and broke through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines.

⁷And God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who dwelt in Gurbaal and against the Meunim.

⁸And the Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he grew exceedingly strong.

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

¹⁰And he built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much livestock; and in the Shephelah and in the plain he had farmers, and vinedressers in the hills and in Carmel; for he was a lover of the soil.

¹¹And Uzziah had an army of warriors that went out to battle in units, according to the number of their muster, by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's commanders.

¹²The whole number of the heads of the ancestral families of the mighty warriors was two thousand six hundred.

¹³And under their hand was an army of troops: three hundred thousand and seven thousand five hundred, warriors who waged war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.

¹⁴And Uzziah prepared for all the army shields and spears and helmets and coats of mail and bows and stones for slings.

¹⁵And he made devices in Jerusalem, the invention of a designer, to be placed on the towers and on the corners, to shoot with arrows and with large stones; and his fame spread far, for he was wondrously helped until he grew strong.

¹⁶And when he grew strong, his heart was lifted up to the point of destruction; and he acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

¹⁷And Azariah the priest came in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord, men of valor.

¹⁸And they stood against Uzziah the king and said to him, 'It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord; for it belongs to the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out from the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and it shall not be to your honor from the Lord God.'

¹⁹And Uzziah was enraged, and in his hand was a censer to burn incense; and in his rage with the priests, the skin disease broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the altar of incense.

²⁰And Azariah the chief priest turned to him, and all the priests — and behold, he was leprous on his forehead. And they hurried him out from there, and also he himself hastened to go out, for the LORD had struck him.

²¹And Uzziah the king was leprous until the day of his death, and he dwelt in the house of exemption, leprous, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD; and Jotham his son was over the house of the king, governing the people of the land.

²²And the rest of the acts of Uzziah, the first and the last, Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, wrote.

²³And Uzziah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, 'He has a skin disease.' And his son Jotham reigned in his place.