II Chronicles 26/דברי הימים ב כ״ו

1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father Amaziah.

2It was he who rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah after King [Amaziah] rested with his ancestors.

3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

4He did what was pleasing to GOD just as his father Amaziah had done.

6He went forth to fight the Philistines, and breached the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; he built towns in [the region of] Ashdod and among the Philistines.

7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and the Meunites.

8The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread to the approaches of Egypt, for he grew exceedingly strong.

9Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem on the Corner Gate and the Valley Gate and on the Angle, and fortified them.

10He built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle, and farmers in the foothills and on the plain, and vine dressers in the mountains and on the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.

11Uzziah had an army of warriors, a battle-ready force who were mustered by Jeiel the scribe and Maasseiah the adjutant under Hananiah, one of the king’s officers.

12The clan chiefs, valiants, totaled 2,600;

13under them was the trained army of 307,500, who made war with might and power to aid the king against the enemy.

14Uzziah provided them—the whole army—with shields and spears, and helmets and mail, and bows and slingstones.

15He made clever devices in Jerusalem, set on the towers and the corners, for shooting arrows and large stones. His fame spread far, for he was helped wonderfully, and he became strong.

16When he was strong, he grew so arrogant he acted corruptly: he trespassed against his God by entering the Temple of GOD to offer incense on the incense altar.

17The priest Azariah, with eighty other brave priests of GOD, followed him in

18and, confronting King Uzziah, said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to GOD, but for the Aaronite priests, who have been consecrated, to offer incense. Get out of the Sanctuary, for you have trespassed; there will be no glory in it for you from the ETERNAL God.”

19Uzziah, holding the censer and ready to burn incense, got angry; but as he got angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in front of the priests in the House of GOD beside the incense altar.

20When the chief priest Azariah and all the other priests looked at him, his forehead was leprous, so they rushed him out of there; he too made haste to get out, for GOD had struck him with a plague.

22The other events of Uzziah’s reign, early and late, were recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

23Uzziah rested with his ancestors in the burial field of the kings, because, they said, he was a leper; his son Jotham succeeded him as king.