Discovery Box2 Chronicles 26:14-23
Context26:14 Uzziah supplied shields, spears, helmets, breastplates, bows, and slingstones for the entire army. 26:15 In Jerusalem he made war machines carefully designed to shoot arrows and large stones from the towers and corners of the walls. He became very famous, for he received tremendous support and became powerful. 1
26:16 But once he became powerful, his pride destroyed him. 2 He disobeyed 3 the Lord his God. He entered the Lord’s temple to offer incense on the incense altar. 26:17 Azariah the priest and eighty other brave priests of the Lord followed him in. 26:18 They confronted 4 King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not proper for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord. That is the responsibility of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have disobeyed 5 and the Lord God will not honor you!” 26:19 Uzziah, who had an incense censer in his hand, became angry. While he was ranting and raving 6 at the priests, a skin disease 7 appeared on his forehead right there in front of the priests in the Lord’s temple near the incense altar. 26:20 When Azariah the high priest and the other priests looked at 8 him, there was a skin disease on his forehead. They hurried him out of there; even the king 9 himself wanted to leave quickly because the Lord had afflicted him. 26:21 King Uzziah suffered from a skin disease until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters, 10 afflicted by a skin disease and banned from the Lord’s temple. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.
26:22 The rest of the events of Uzziah’s reign, from start to finish, were recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 11 26:23 Uzziah passed away 12 and was buried near his ancestors 13 in a cemetery 14 belonging to the kings. (This was because he had a skin disease.) 15 His son Jotham replaced him as king.
[26:15] 1 tn Heb “and his name went out to a distant place, for he did extraordinarily to be helped until he was strong.”
[26:16] 2 tn Heb “his heart was high [i.e., proud] to destroy.”
[26:16] 3 tn Or “was unfaithful to.”
[26:18] 4 tn Heb “stood against.”
[26:18] 5 tn Or “been unfaithful.”
[26:19] 7 tn Traditionally “leprosy,” but this was probably a skin disorder of some type, not leprosy (technically known today as Hansen’s disease). See 2 Kgs 5:1.
[26:20] 8 tn Heb “turned toward.”
[26:20] 9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[26:21] 10 tn The precise meaning of בֵּית הַחָפְשִׁית (bet hakhafshiyt, “house of [?]”) is uncertain. NASB, NIV, NRSV all have “in a separate house”; NEB has “in his own house…relieved of all duties.” For a discussion of various proposals, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 166-67.
[26:22] 11 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Uzziah, the former and the latter, Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, recorded.”
[26:23] 12 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
