2 Chronicles 26 Study Notes

26:1 Uzziah: Tenth king of Judah; called Azariah in 2Kg 15; son of Amaziah; devoted to God, but was struck with a serious skin disease when he attempted to burn incense to God in the temple. When Uzziah became king of Judah at age sixteen, it was probably as a co-regent during the time when his father Amaziah was held captive by King Jehoash of Israel, and then later when Amaziah was fleeing for his life from his assassins. Uzziah learned the lessons that his predecessor had refused to accept and became a godly and righteous king. His long reign of fifty-two years, though limited by co-regency for the first part and his being in seclusion with a disease in the second part, was generally a time of peace and prosperity in the land.

26:2 One of the first things Uzziah did was to rebuild the seaport of Eloth, at the northern tip of the Red Sea. This meant that Judah was once again a player among the major powers and had access to the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. This move, perhaps not of grand consequence in itself, signaled that Judah was once again a force to be reckoned with.

26:3-4 Uzziah’s fifty-two years apparently included twenty-five years coreigning with his father Amaziah.

26:5 This Zechariah, not the son of Jehoiada (24:20) or the prophet who has a book of the Bible named after him, fulfilled in some ways the same role for Uzziah as Jehoiada had done for Joash (24:2). When Zechariah died, Uzziah also weakened in his commitment to the Lord. Still, Uzziah’s eventual waywardness occurred within the context of his worship of the Lord; he never strayed into idolatry.

26:6-10 For several hundred years, extending from the time of the judges through the time of Saul and David, the Philistines had been the main focus of Israel’s military involvements. Then, after David had defeated them decisively, they remained in the background for a while. They appeared again during the time of Jehoshaphat when they presented tribute to the king in Jerusalem, and then again during the reign of Ahaziah when they invaded Jerusalem and carried off much treasure. Now Uzziah reasserted Judah’s dominance over the Philistines by capturing their cities and destroying their walls. Uzziah was also able to bring back into line certain Arabs, the Meunites (Edomites), and the Ammonites. He not only fortified strategic corners in Jerusalem, but he also established settlements in the country, laying claim to the land not by military occupation but by agricultural development.

26:11-15 Uzziah had a different philosophy about the army than his predecessors. In the past, the idea had been to accumulate more and more men so that the army of Judah grew from 180,000 under Rehoboam to over one million at the time of Jehoshaphat. Instead of drastically increasing the size of his army, Uzziah had roughly the same number of men at his disposal as his father (307,500). But he organized them into more flexible divisions, and he made sure they had effective weapons. As a result, he became well-known and strong. The Chronicler emphasizes that this was because he was wondrously helped. The Lord undergirded all his efforts.

26:16 Although Uzziah did not commit idolatry, he still overstepped his royal authority by assuming a role that God had denied to any person who was not a descendant of Aaron of the tribe of Levi. He went into the holy place and burned incense, something that only a priest was allowed to do.

26:17-18 It was not an easy matter to call the king to account for his wrongdoing, but a priest, Azariah, and eighty of his colleagues did just that. They confronted the king and told him that what he was about to do was wrong. The priests declared to Uzziah that even if God did not punish him, he would not accept the king’s worship, as expressed by the phrase, You will not receive honor.

26:19-21 Uzziah already had the incense firepan in his hand. Rather than listen to the priests, he became furious and continued. Immediately God punished him by having a skin disease break out on his forehead. The king dropped what he was doing and allowed himself to be led out of the temple into seclusion for the rest of his life. Though he was still officially the king, his son Jotham was placed in charge of the day-to-day duties of king.

26:22 This refers to a writing of the prophet Isaiah that we do not have, but see Is 6:1.

26:23 Uzziah received a proper royal burial, though his tomb may have been separated from those of the previous kings because of the unclean condition caused by his skin disease.