Uzziah's Strength and His Fall Into Leprosy

The people of Judah took Uzziah, a boy of sixteen, and made him king after his father Amaziah. He reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, and his mother was Jechiliah of Jerusalem. From the start, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, following the pattern of his father Amaziah. He set himself to seek God during the days of Zechariah, a man who had understanding in the vision of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

That prosperity took visible shape. Uzziah went to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. He built cities in the country of Ashdod and among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who dwelt in Gur-baal, and against the Meunim. The Ammonites paid him tribute, and his name spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he grew exceedingly strong.

He fortified Jerusalem, building towers at the corner gate, the valley gate, and the turning of the wall. In the wilderness he built towers and hewed out many cisterns, because he had much cattle. In the lowland and the plain, in the mountains and the fruitful fields, he had husbandmen and vinedressers, for he loved husbandry. The land was not only defended but productive under his hand.

His military organization was thorough. The scribe Jeiel and the officer Maaseiah made the reckoning under the captain Hananiah. The heads of fathers' houses, the mighty men of valor, numbered two thousand six hundred. Under their command was an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred men, who made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy. Uzziah equipped them all with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging.

In Jerusalem, he had engines invented by skillful men, placed on the towers and battlements, to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong. The strength was real, and it came from the Lord.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up. That lifting led to corruption. He trespassed against the Lord his God by going into the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. That duty belonged to the priests, the sons of Aaron, who were consecrated for it. Uzziah took it as his own.

Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. They stood against Uzziah the king and said, “It does not belong to you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron who are consecrated. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. It will not be for your honor from the Lord God.”

Uzziah was furious. He held a censer in his hand, ready to burn incense. While he was raging at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, right there in the house of the Lord beside the altar of incense. Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him and saw the leprosy on his forehead. They thrust him out quickly from the temple, and Uzziah himself hurried to leave, because the Lord had struck him.

Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in a separate house, cut off from the house of the Lord. His son Jotham was over the king's house, judging the people of the land. The rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, were written by Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz. Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial that belonged to the kings, because they said, “He is a leper.” And Jotham his son reigned in his place.