1The people of Judah, acting together, took Uzziah, now sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah.
2It was he who built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king rested with his forefathers.
3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem.
4He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as Amaziah his father had done.
5He set himself to seek the guidance of God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God; as long as he sought guidance from the LORD, God caused him to prosper.
6He took the field against the Philistines. He broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod, and built towns in the territory of Ashdod and among the Philistines.
7God aided him against them, as well as against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.
8The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah and his fame spread to the borders of Egypt, for he had become very powerful.
9He erected towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the escarpment, and fortified them.
10He erected other towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, for he had large herds of cattle both in the Shephelah and in the plain. He also had farmers and vine-dressers in the hill-country and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.
11Uzziah had an army of soldiers trained and ready for service, mustered in divisions according to the numbering made by Jeiel the adjutant-general and Maaseiah the clerk, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's commanders.
12The total number of heads of families which supplied seasoned warriors was two thousand six hundred.
13Under their command was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, a powerful fighting force to aid the king against his enemies.
14Uzziah provided for the whole army shields, spears, helmets, coats of armour, bows, and sling-stones.
15In Jerusalem he had machines designed by engineers for use on towers and battlements to discharge arrows and large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was so wonderfully gifted that he became very powerful.
16But when he grew powerful his pride became great and led to his own undoing: he offended against the LORD his God by entering the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the incense-altar.
17Azariah the priest and eighty others of the LORD's priests, courageous men, went in after King Uzziah,
18confronted him, and said, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the Aaronite priests who have been consecrated for that office. Leave the sanctuary; for you have offended, and that will certainly bring you no honour from the LORD God.”
19The king, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, was enraged; but while he was raging at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, there in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense.
20When Azariah the chief priest and the other priests looked towards him, they saw that his forehead was leprous. They hurried him out of the temple, and indeed he himself hastened to leave, because the LORD had struck him with the disease.
21King Uzziah remained a leper till the day of his death; he lived in his palace as a leper, relieved of all duties and excluded from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham was comptroller of the household and regent over the country.
22The other events of Uzziah's reign, from first to last, are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
23He rested with his forefathers and was buried with them, but in the field adjoining the royal tombs, for they said, “He is a leper.” His son Jotham succeeded him.