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2 CHROICLES 26 COMMETARYEDITED BY GLE PEASE
Uzziah King of Judah
1 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah,[a] who was sixteen
years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
BARES, "Uzziah - This form of the name is found uniformly in
Chronicles (except 1Ch_3:12) and in the prophets. The writer of
Kings prefers the form Azariah. Uzziah has been regarded as a
phonetic corruption of the real name used by the common people.
CLARKE, "The people of Judah took Uzziah - They all agreed to
place this son on his fathers throne.
GILL 1-4, "Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah,.... Of this
and the three following verses, see the notes on 2Ki_14:21 where
Uzziah is called Azariah. See Gill on 2Ki_14:21, 2Ki_14:22,
2Ki_15:2, 2Ki_15:3
HERY 1-15, "We have here an account of two things concerning
Uzziah: -
I. His piety. In this he was not very eminent or zealous; yet he
did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He kept up the
pure worship of the true God as his fatherdid, and was better than
his father, inasmuch as we have no reason to think he ever
worshipped idols as his father did, no, not in his latter days,
when his heart was lifted up. It is said (2Ch_26:5), He sought God
in the days of Zechariah, who, some think, was the son of the
Zechariah whom his grandfather Joash slew. This Zechariah was one
that had understanding in the visions of God, either the visions
which he himself was favoured with or the visions of the preceding
prophets. He was well versed in prophecy, and conversed much with
the upper world, was an intelligent, devout, good man; and, it
seems, had great influence with Uzziah. Happy are the great men who
have such about them and are willing to be advised by them; but
unhappy those who seek God only while they have such with them and
have not a principle in themselves to bear them out to the end.
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II. His prosperity.
1. In general, as long as he sought the Lord, and minded
religion, God made him to prosper. Note, (1.) Those only prosper
whom God makes to prosper; for prosperity is his gift. (2.)
Religion and piety are very friendly to outward prosperity. Many
have found and owned this, that as long as they sought the Lord and
kept close to their duty they prospered; but since they forsook God
every thing has gone cross.
2. Here are several particular instances of his prosperity: -
(1.) His success in his wars: God helped him (2Ch_26:7), and then
he triumphed over the Philistines (those old enemies of God's
people), demolished the fortifications of their cities, and put
garrisons of his own among them, 2Ch_26:6. He obliged the Ammonites
to pay him tribute, 2Ch_26:8. He made all quiet about him, and kept
them in awe. (2.) The greatness of his fame and reputation. His
name was celebrated throughout all the neighbouring countries
(2Ch_26:8) and it was a good name, a name for good things with God
and good people. This is true fame, and makes a man truly
honourable. (3.) His buildings. While he acted offensively abroad,
he did not neglect the defence of his kingdom at home, but built
towers in Jerusalem and fortified them, 2Ch_26:9. Much of the wall
of Jerusalem was in his father's time broken down, particularly at
the corner gate. But his best fortification of Jerusalem was his
close adherence to the worship of God: if his father had not
forsaken this the wall of Jerusalem would not have been broken
down. While he fortified the city, he did not forget the country,
but built towers in the desert too (2Ch_26:10), to protect the
country people from the inroads of the plunderers, bands of whom
sometimes alarmed them and plundered them, as 2Ch_21:16. (4.) His
husbandry. He dealt much in cattle and corn, employed many hands,
and got much wealth by his dealing; for he took a pleasure in it:
he loved husbandry (2Ch_21:10), and probably did himself inspect
his affairs in the country, which was no disparagement to him, but
an advantage, as it encouraged industry among his subjects. It is
an honour to the husbandman's calling that one of the most
illustrious princes of the house of David followed it and loved it.
He was not one of those that delight in war, nor did he addict
himself to sport and pleasure, but delighted in the innocent and
quiet employments of the husbandman. (5.) His standing armies. He
had, as it should seem, two military establishments. [1.] A host of
fighting men that were to make excursions abroad. These went out to
war by bands, 2Ch_21:11. They fetched in spoil from the
neighbouring countries by way of reprisal for the depredations they
had so often made upon Judah, [2.] Another army for guards and
garrisons, that were ready to defend the country in case it should
be invaded, 2Ch_21:12, 2Ch_21:13. So great were their number and
valour that they made war with mighty power; no enemy durst face
them, or, at least, could stand before them. Men unarmed can do
little in war. Uzziah therefore furnished himself with a great
armoury, whence his soldiers were supplied with arms offensive and
defensive (2Ch_21:14), spears, bows, and slings, shields, helmets,
and habergeons: swords are not mentioned, because it is probable
that every man had a sword of his own, which he wore constantly.
Engines were invented, in his time, for annoying besiegers with
darts and stones shot from the towers and bulwarks, 2Ch_21:15. What
a pity it is that the wars and fightings which come from men's
lusts have made it necessary for cunning men to employ their skill
in inventing instruments of death.
JAMISO, "2Ch_26:1-8. Uzziah succeeds Amaziah and reigns well in
the days of Zechariah.
Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah (See on 2Ki_14:21; see
on 2Ki_
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15:1).
K&D 1-5, "The statements as to Uzziah's attainment of
dominion, the building of the seaport town Elath on the Red Sea,
the length and character of his reign (2Ch_26:1-4), agree entirely
with 2Ki_14:21-22, and 2Ki_15:2-3; see the commentary on these
passages. Uzziah () is called in 1Ch_3:12 and in 2 Kings
(generally) Azariah (); cf. on the use of the two names, the
commentary on 2Ki_14:21. - In 2Ch_26:5, instead of the standing
formula, only the high places were not removed, etc.) Kings),
Uzziah's attitude towards the Lord is more exactly defined thus: He
was seeking God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the
fear of God; and in the days when he sought
Jahve, God gave him success. In to , is subordinated to the
infinitive with express the duration of his seeking, for which the
participle is elsewhere used. Nothing further is known of the
Zechariah here mentioned: the commentators hold him to have
been an important prophet; for had he been a priest, or the high
priest, probably
would have been used. The reading (Keth.) is surprising. can
only denote, who had insight into (or understanding for the) seeing
of God; cf. Dan_1:17. But Kimchi's idea, which other old
commentators share, that this is a periphrasis to denote the
prophetic endowment or activity of the man, is opposed by this,
that the seeing of God which was granted to the elders of Israel at
the making of the covenant, Exo_24:10, cannot be regarded as a
thing within the sphere of human action or practice, while the
prophetic beholding in vision is essentially different from the
seeing of God,
and is, moreover, never so called. would therefore seem to be an
orthographical
error for , some MSS having or (cf. de Rossi, variae lectt.);
and the lxx,
Syr., Targ., Arab., Raschi, Kimchi, and others giving the
reading who was a ,teacher (instructor) in the fear of God, in
favour of which also Vitringa, proll. in Jes. p. 4, has
decided.
BESO, "2 Chronicles 26:1. The people of Judah took Uzziah Called
also Azariah, 2 Kings 14:21; both names signifying the same thing,
the strength, or help of God. Of this and 2 Chronicles 26:1; 2
Chronicles 26:3-4, see notes on 2 Kings 14:21-22; and 1 Kings
15:2-3.
ELLICOTT, "REIG OF UZZIAH-AZARIAH.
ACCESSIO, AGE, AD CODUCT OF UZZIAH. IFLUECE OF THE PROPHET
ZECHARIAH (2 Chronicles 26:1-5). (Comp. 2 Kings 14:21-22; 2 Kings
15:2-3.)
(1) Then.And.
Uzziah.So the chronicler always names him, except in one place
(1 Chronicles 3:12), where the name Azariah appears, as in 2 Kings
14:21; 2 Kings 15:1; 2 Kings
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15:6, &c. In 2 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 15:30; 2 Kings 15:32; 2
Kings 15:34, Uzziah occurs (though there also the LXX. reads
Azariah, thus making the usage of Kings uniform); as also in the
headings of the prophecies of Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah. It is not,
therefore, to be regarded either as a popular abbreviation or a
transcribers blunder, as Schrader and others suggest. In the
Assyrian inscriptions of Tiglathpileser II this king is uniformly
called Azriyahu, i.e., Azariah. Clearly, therefore, he was known by
both names; but to foreigners chiefly by the latter. (Comp.
AzareelUzziel, 1 Chronicles 25:4; 1 Chronicles 25:18.)
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 26:1 Then all the people of Judah took
Uzziah, who [was] sixteen years old, and made him king in the room
of his father Amaziah.
Ver. 1. Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah.] In this and
the next ten chapters we have the histories of Uzziah and ten more
kings of Judah, in whose days prophesied the most of the prophets,
both major and minor: (a) to whose writings these eleven chapters
lend not a little light, and are therefore diligently to be read
and heeded.
POOLE, "Uzziah is made king; reigneth well in the days of
Zechariah, and prospereth, 2 Chronicles 26:1-15. He invadeth the
priests office; is smitten with a leprosy, 2 Chronicles 26:16-21.
He dieth, and Jotham succeedeth him, 2 Chronicles 26:22,23.
Uzziah; called also Azariah, 2 Kings 14:21; both names
signifying the same thing, Gods strength, or help. See of this, and
2 Chronicles 26:2-4, on 2 Kings 14:21,22 15:2,3.
GUZIK, "A. The years of blessing and strength.
1. (2 Chronicles 26:1-5) The overview of Uzziahs reign.
ow all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years
old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. He built
Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king rested with his
fathers. Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he
reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mothers name was
Jecholiah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of
the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He
sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the
visions of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him
prosper.
a. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD: The reign of
Uzziah was largely characterized by the good he did in the sight of
the LORD. His godliness was rewarded with a long reign of 52
years.
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i. Uzziah came to the throne in a difficult era: Following the
tragic events that brought King Amaziahs reign to an end, Jerusalem
was in disarray, a major section of its protective wall destroyed,
its temple and palace emptied of their treasures, and some of its
inhabitants taken away to Israel as hostages. (Dilday)
ii. Knapp suggests that Uzziah became king in an unusual manner:
He seems to have come by the throne, not in the way of ordinary
succession, but by the direct choice of the people. The princes had
been destroyed by the Syrians toward the close of his grandfather
Joashs reign (2 Chronicles 24:23), leaving the people a free
hand.
iii. ow all the people of Judah took Uzziah: The idea that the
king could be chosen by the will of the people was never entirely
lost in Judah. (Selman)
b. As long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper: This
generally mixed review of Uzziahs reign is also indicated by 2
Kings 15:1-4, which tells us that Uzziah (also called Azariah in 2
Kings) did not remove the high places, traditional places of
sacrifice to the LORD and sometimes doorways to idolatry.
i. The two names are best understood as variants arising from
the interchangeability of two closely related Hebrew roots.
(Selman)
PULPIT, "The twenty-three verses of this chapter, entirely
occupied with the career of Uzziah, have to be content with a
parallel of nine verses only, viz. 2 Kings 14:21, 2 Kings 14:22; 2
Kings 15:1-7. Our chapter first glances at the usual prefatory
particulars of the age, pedigree, length of reign, kind of
character, and choice between virtue and vice of the new king (2
Chronicles 26:1-5; but note the remarkable appearance of 2
Chronicles 26:2, looking as though it had strayed). ext, of his
good works (2 Chronicles 26:6-15). ext, of his fall through most
gratuitous "presumptuous sin," and its decisive crushing visitation
of punishment (2 Chronicles 26:16-21). Lastly, of his death and
burial (2 Chronicles 26:22, 2 Chronicles 26:23). The nine verses of
the parallel instanced above answer respectively2 Chronicles 26:21,
2 Chronicles 26:22 to our 2 Chronicles 26:1, 2 Chronicles 26:2; 2
Chronicles 26:1-3, to our 2 Chronicles 26:1, 2 Chronicles 26:3, 2
Chronicles 26:4; 2 Chronicles 5:1-14, to our verse 21; and 2
Chronicles 5:6, 2 Chronicles 5:7, to our verses 22, 23. That our
chapter should abound in interest, and such solemn interest,
awakens the more thought [as to the causes of the absence of so
much of its most interesting matter in the Book of Kings.
2 Chronicles 26:1
Uzziah; Hebrew, . (signifying "Strength of Jehovah"). Once in
Chronicles, and once only (1 Chronicles 3:12), this king's name is
given Azariah, Hebrew, (signifying "Help of Jehovah") or ; and
Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1, etc.), Hosea (Hosea 1:1, etc.), and Amos (Amos
1:1, etc.) always use the word Uzziah. In the parallel, however,
and in both the chapters in which the parallel clauses lie, the
word
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Azariah is used, as well in other clauses as in those (e.g. 2
Kings 15:1, 2 Kings 15:6, 2 Kings 15:8, 2 Kings 15:23, 2 Kings
15:27), yet Uzziah is also used in verses intermingled with them
(e.g. 2 Chronicles 26:13, 30, 32, 34). It is probable that Azariah
was the first-used name, that the latter name was not a corruption
of the former, but that, for whatever reason, the king was called
by both names. evertheless, the apt analogy that has been pointed
out of Uzziel (1 Chronicles 25:4) and Azareel (18) is noteworthy.
(See Keil and Bertheau on 1 Kings 15:2 and 2 Kings 14:21; and Keil
on our present passage.) Sixteen years old. Therefore Uzziah must
have been born just before the fatal outside mistake of his
father's life in the challenge he sent to Joash of Israel, and
after the deadly inner mistake of his soul in turning aside to "the
gods of the children of Seir."
PARKER, "UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AD AHAZ
2 Chronicles 26:1-23; 2 Chronicles 27:1-9; 2 Chronicles
28:1-27
AFTER the assassination of Amaziah, all the people of Judah took
his son Uzziah, a lad of sixteen, called in the book of Kings
Azariah, and made him king. The chronicler borrows from the older
narrative the statement that "Uzziah did that which was right in
the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had
done." In the light of the sins attributed both to Amaziah and
Uzziah in Chronicles, this is a somewhat doubtful compliment.
Sarcasm, however, is not one of the chroniclers failings; he simply
allows the older history to speak for itself, and leaves the reader
to combine its judgment with the statement of later tradition as
best he can. But yet we might modify this verse, and read that
Uzziah did good and evil, prospered and fell into misfortune,
according to all that his father Amaziah had done, or an even
closer parallel might be drawn between what Uzziah did and suffered
and the chequered character and fortunes of Joash.
Though much older than the latter, at his accession Uzziah was
young enough to be very much under the control of ministers and
advisers; and as Joash was trained in loyalty to Jehovah by the
high-priest Jehoiada, so Uzziah "set himself to seek God during the
life-time" of a certain prophet, who, like the son of Jehoiada, was
named Zechariah, "who had understanding or gave instruction in the
fear of Jehovah," i.e., a man versed in sacred learning, rich in
spiritual experience, and able to communicate his knowledge, such a
one as Ezra the scribe in later days.
Under the guidance of this otherwise unknown prophet, the young
king was led to conform his private life and public administration
to the will of God. In "seeking God," Uzziah would be careful to
maintain and attend the Temple services, to honor the priests of
Jehovah and make due provision for their wants; and "as long as he
sought Jehovah God gave him prosperity."
Uzziah received all the rewards usually bestowed, upon pious
kings: he was
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victorious in war and exacted tribute from neighboring states;
he built fortresses, and had abundance of cattle and slaves, a
large and well-equipped army, and well-supplied arsenals. Like
other powerful kings of Judah, he asserted his supremacy over the
tribes along the southern frontier of his kingdom. God helped him
against the Philistines, the Arabians of Gur-baal, and the Meunim.
He destroyed the fortifications of Gath, Jabne, and Ashdod, and
built forts of his own in the country of the Philistines. othing is
known about Gur-baal; but the Arabian allies of the Philistines
would be, like Jehorams enemies "the Arabians who dwelt near the
Ethiopians," nomads of the deserts south of Judah. These
Philistines and Arabians had brought tribute to Jehoshaphat without
waiting to be subdued by his armies; so now the Ammonites gave
gifts to Uzziah, and his name spread abroad "even to the entering
in of Egypt," possibly a hundred or even a hundred and fifty miles
from Jerusalem. It is evident that the chroniclers ideas of
international politics were of very modest dimensions.
Moreover, Uzziah added to the fortifications of Jerusalem; and
because he loved husbandry and had cattle, and husbandmen, and
vine-dressers in the open country and outlying districts of Judah,
he built towers for their protection. His army was of about the
same strength as that of Amaziah, three hundred thousand men, so
that in this, as in his character and exploits, he did according to
all that his father had done, except that he was content with his
own Jewish warriors and did not waste his talents in purchasing
worse than useless reinforcements from Israel. Uzziahs army was
well disciplined, carefully organized, and constantly employed;
they were men of mighty power, and went out to war by bands, to
collect the kings tribute and enlarge his dominions and revenue by
new conquests. The war material in his arsenals is described at
greater length than that of any previous king: shields, spears,
helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slings. The great
advance of military science in Uzziahs reign was marked by the
invention of engines of war for the defense of Jerusalem; some,
like the Roman catapulta, were for arrows, and others, like the
ballista, to hurl huge stones. Though the Assyrian sculptures show
us that battering-rams were freely employed by them against the
walls of Jewish cities, {Cf. Ezekiel 26:9} and the ballista is said
by Pliny to have been invented in Syria, no other Hebrew king is
credited with the possession of this primitive artillery. The
chronicler or his authority seems profoundly impressed by the great
skill displayed in this invention; in describing it, he uses the
root hashabh, to devise, three times in three consecutive words.
The engines were "hishshe-bhonoth mahashebheth hoshebh"-"engines
engineered by the ingenious." Jehovah not only provided Uzziah with
ample military resources of every kind, but also blessed the means
which He Himself had furnished; Uzziah "was marvelously helped,
till he was strong, and his name spread far abroad." The
neighboring states heard with admiration of his military
resources.
The student of Chronicles will by this time be prepared for the
invariable sequel to God-given prosperity. Like David, Rehoboam,
Asa, and Amaziah, when Uzziah "was strong, his heart was lifted up
to his destruction." The most powerful of the kings of Judah died a
leper. An attack of leprosy admitted of only one explanation: it
was a plague inflicted by Jehovah Himself as the punishment of sin;
and so the
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book of Kings tells us that "Jehovah smote the king," but says
nothing about the sin thus punished. The chronicler was able to
supply the omission: Uzziah had dared to go into the Temple and
with irregular zeal to burn incense on the altar of incense. In so
doing, he was violating the Law, which made the priestly office and
all priestly functions the exclusive prerogative of the house of
Aaron and denounced the penalty of death against any one who
usurped priestly functions. [umbers 18:7;, Exodus 30:7] But Uzziah
was not allowed to carry out his unholy design; the high-priest
Azariah went in after him with eighty stalwart colleagues, rebuked
his presumption, and bade him leave the sanctuary. Uzziah was no
more tractable to the admonitions of the priest than Asa and
Amaziah had been to those of the prophets. The kings of Judah were
accustomed, even in Chronicles, to exercise an unchallenged control
over the Temple and to regard the high-priests very much in the
light of private chaplains. Uzziah was wroth: he was at the zenith
of his power and glory; his heart was lifted up. Who were these
priests, that they should stand between him and Jehovah and dare to
publicly check and rebuke him in his own temple? Henry IIs feelings
towards Becket must have been mild compared to those of Uzziah
towards Azariah, who, if the king could have had his way, would
doubtless have shared the fate of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada.
But a direct intervention of Jehovah protected the priests, and
preserved Uzziah from further sacrilege. While his features were
convulsed with anger, leprosy brake forth in his forehead. The
contest between king and priest was at once ended; the priests
thrust him out, and he himself hasted to go, recognizing that
Jehovah had smitten him. Henceforth he lived apart, cut off from
fellowship alike with man and God, and his son Jotham governed in
his stead. The book of Kings simply makes the general statement
that Uzziah was buried with his fathers in the city of David; but
the chronicler is anxious that his readers should not suppose that
the tombs of the sacred house of David were polluted by the
presence of a leprous corpse: the explains that the leper was
buried, not in the royal sepulcher, but in the field attached to
it.
The moral of this incident is obvious. In attempting to
understand its significance, we need not trouble ourselves about
the relative authority of kings and priests; the principle
vindicated by the punishment of Uzziah was the simple duty of
obedience to an express command of Jehovah. However trivial the
burning of incense may be in itself, it formed part of an elaborate
and complicated system of ritual. To interfere with the Divine
ordinances in one detail would mar the significance and
impressiveness of the whole Temple service. One arbitrary
innovation would be a precedent for others, and would constitute a
serious danger for a system whose value lay in continuous
uniformity. Moreover, Uzziah was stubborn in disobedience. His
attempt to burn incense might have been sufficiently punished by
the public and humiliating reproof of the high-priest. His leprosy
came upon him because, when thwarted in an unholy purpose, he gave
way to ungoverned passion.
In its consequences we see a practical application of the
lessons of the incident. How often is the sinner only provoked to
greater wickedness by the obstacles which Divine grace opposes to
his wrong-doing! How few men will tolerate the suggestion that
their intentions are cruel, selfish, or dishonorable! Remonstrance
is an insult, an offence against their personal dignity; they feel
that their self-respect demands
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that they should persevere in their purpose, and that they
should resent and punish any one who has tried to thwart them.
Uzziahs wrath was perfectly natural; few men have been so uniformly
patient of reproof as not sometimes to have turned in anger upon
those who warned them against sin. The most dramatic feature of
this episode, the sudden frost of leprosy in the kings forehead, is
not without its spiritual antitype. Mens anger at well-merited
reproof has often blighted their lives once for all with
ineradicable moral leprosy. In the madness of passion they have
broken bonds which have hitherto restrained them and committed
themselves beyond recall to evil pursuits and fatal friendships.
Let us take the most lenient view of Uzziahs conduct, and suppose
that he believed himself entitled to offer incense; he could not
doubt that the priests were equally confident that Jehovah had
enjoined the duty on them, and them alone. Such a question was not
to be decided by violence, in the heat of personal bitterness.
Azariah himself had been unwisely zealous in bringing in his eighty
priests; Jehovah showed him that they were quite unnecessary,
because at the last Uzziah "himself hasted to go out." When
personal passion and jealousy are eliminated from Christian
polemics, the Church will be able to write the epitaph of the odium
theologicum.
Uzziah was succeeded by Jotham, who had already governed for
some time as regent. In recording the favorable judgment of the
book of Kings, "He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah,
according to all that his father Uzziah had done," the chronicler
is careful to add, "Howbeit he entered not into the temple of
Jehovah"; the exclusive privilege of the house of Aaron had been
established once for all. The story of Jothams reign comes like a
quiet and pleasant oasis in the chroniclers dreary narrative of
wicked rulers, interspersed with pious kings whose piety failed
them in their latter days. Jotham shares with Solomon the
distinguished honor of being a king of whom no evil is recorded
either in Kings or Chronicles, and who died in prosperity, at peace
with Jehovah. At the same time it is probable that Jotham owes the
blameless character he bears in Chronicles to the fact that the
earlier narrative does not mention any misfortunes of his,
especially any misfortune towards the close of his life. Otherwise
the theological school from whom the chronicler derived, his later
traditions would have been anxious to discover or deduce some sin
to account for such misfortune. At the end of the short notice of
his reign, between two parts of the usual closing formula, an
editor of the book of Kings has inserted the statement that "in
those days Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin the king of
Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah." This verse the chronicler has
omitted; neither the date nor the nature of this trouble was clear
enough to cast any slur upon the character of Jotham.
Jotham, again, had the rewards of a pious king: he added a gate
to the Temple, and strengthened the wall of Ophel, and built cities
and castles in Judah; he made successful war upon Ammon, and
received from them an immense tribute-a hundred talents of silver,
ten thousand measures of wheat, and as much barley-for three
successive years. What happened afterwards we are not told. It has
been suggested that the amounts mentioned were paid in three yearly
installments, or that the three years were at the end of the reign,
and the tribute came to an end when Jotham died or when the
troubles with Pekah and Rezin began.
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We have had repeated occasion to notice that in his accounts of
the good kings the chronicler almost always omits the qualifying
clause to the effect that they did not take away the high places.
He does so here but, contrary to his usual practice, he inserts a
qualifying clause of his own: "The people did yet corruptly." He
probably had in view the unmitigated wickedness of the following
reign, and was glad to retain the evidence that Ahaz found
encouragement and support in his idolatry; he is careful however,
to state the fact so that no shadow of blame falls upon Jotham.
The life of Ahaz has been dealt with elsewhere. Here we need
merely repeat that for the sixteen years of his reign Judah was to
all appearance utterly given over to every form of idolatry, and
was oppressed and brought low by Israel, Syria, and Assyria.
EBC, "UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AD AHAZ
2 Chronicles 26:1-23; 2 Chronicles 27:1-9; 2 Chronicles
28:1-27
AFTER the assassination of Amaziah, all the people of Judah took
his son Uzziah, a lad of sixteen, called in the book of Kings
Azariah, and made him king. The chronicler borrows from the older
narrative the statement that "Uzziah did that which was right in
the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had
done." In the light of the sins attributed both to Amaziah and
Uzziah in Chronicles, this is a somewhat doubtful compliment.
Sarcasm, however, is not one of the chroniclers failings; he simply
allows the older history to speak for itself, and leaves the reader
to combine its judgment with the statement of later tradition as
best he can. But yet we might modify this verse, and read that
Uzziah did good and evil, prospered and fell into misfortune,
according to all that his father Amaziah had done, or an even
closer parallel might be drawn between what Uzziah did and suffered
and the chequered character and fortunes of Joash.
Though much older than the latter, at his accession Uzziah was
young enough to be very much under the control of ministers and
advisers; and as Joash was trained in loyalty to Jehovah by the
high-priest Jehoiada, so Uzziah "set himself to seek God during the
life-time" of a certain prophet, who, like the son of Jehoiada, was
named Zechariah, "who had understanding or gave instruction in the
fear of Jehovah," i.e., a man versed in sacred learning, rich in
spiritual experience, and able to communicate his knowledge, such a
one as Ezra the scribe in later days.
Under the guidance of this otherwise unknown prophet, the young
king was led to conform his private life and public administration
to the will of God. In "seeking God," Uzziah would be careful to
maintain and attend the Temple services, to honor the priests of
Jehovah and make due provision for their wants; and "as long as he
sought Jehovah God gave him prosperity."
Uzziah received all the rewards usually bestowed, upon pious
kings: he was victorious in war and exacted tribute from
neighboring states; he built fortresses,
-
and had abundance of cattle and slaves, a large and
well-equipped army, and well-supplied arsenals. Like other powerful
kings of Judah, he asserted his supremacy over the tribes along the
southern frontier of his kingdom. God helped him against the
Philistines, the Arabians of Gur-baal, and the Meunim. He destroyed
the fortifications of Gath, Jabne, and Ashdod, and built forts of
his own in the country of the Philistines. othing is known about
Gur-baal; but the Arabian allies of the Philistines would be, like
Jehorams enemies "the Arabians who dwelt near the Ethiopians,"
nomads of the deserts south of Judah. These Philistines and
Arabians had brought tribute to Jehoshaphat without waiting to be
subdued by his armies; so now the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah,
and his name spread abroad "even to the entering in of Egypt,"
possibly a hundred or even a hundred and fifty miles from
Jerusalem. It is evident that the chroniclers ideas of
international politics were of very modest dimensions.
Moreover, Uzziah added to the fortifications of Jerusalem; and
because he loved husbandry and had cattle, and husbandmen, and
vine-dressers in the open country and outlying districts of Judah,
he built towers for their protection. His army was of about the
same strength as that of Amaziah, three hundred thousand men, so
that in this, as in his character and exploits, he did according to
all that his father had done, except that he was content with his
own Jewish warriors and did not waste his talents in purchasing
worse than useless reinforcements from Israel. Uzziahs army was
well disciplined, carefully organized, and constantly employed;
they were men of mighty power, and went out to war by bands, to
collect the kings tribute and enlarge his dominions and revenue by
new conquests. The war material in his arsenals is described at
greater length than that of any previous king: shields, spears,
helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slings. The great
advance of military science in Uzziahs reign was marked by the
invention of engines of war for the defense of Jerusalem; some,
like the Roman catapulta, were for arrows, and others, like the
ballista, to hurl huge stones. Though the Assyrian sculptures show
us that battering-rams were freely employed by them against the
walls of Jewish cities, {Cf. Ezekiel 26:9} and the ballista is said
by Pliny to have been invented in Syria, no other Hebrew king is
credited with the possession of this primitive artillery. The
chronicler or his authority seems profoundly impressed by the great
skill displayed in this invention; in describing it, he uses the
root hashabh, to devise, three times in three consecutive words.
The engines were "hishshe-bhonoth mahashebheth hoshebh"-"engines
engineered by the ingenious." Jehovah not only provided Uzziah with
ample military resources of every kind, but also blessed the means
which He Himself had furnished; Uzziah "was marvelously helped,
till he was strong, and his name spread far abroad." The
neighboring states heard with admiration of his military
resources.
The student of Chronicles will by this time be prepared for the
invariable sequel to God-given prosperity. Like David, Rehoboam,
Asa, and Amaziah, when Uzziah "was strong, his heart was lifted up
to his destruction." The most powerful of the kings of Judah died a
leper. An attack of leprosy admitted of only one explanation: it
was a plague inflicted by Jehovah Himself as the punishment of sin;
and so the book of Kings tells us that "Jehovah smote the king,"
but says nothing about the sin
-
thus punished. The chronicler was able to supply the omission:
Uzziah had dared to go into the Temple and with irregular zeal to
burn incense on the altar of incense. In so doing, he was violating
the Law, which made the priestly office and all priestly functions
the exclusive prerogative of the house of Aaron and denounced the
penalty of death against any one who usurped priestly functions.
[umbers 18:7;, Exodus 30:7] But Uzziah was not allowed to carry out
his unholy design; the high-priest Azariah went in after him with
eighty stalwart colleagues, rebuked his presumption, and bade him
leave the sanctuary. Uzziah was no more tractable to the
admonitions of the priest than Asa and Amaziah had been to those of
the prophets. The kings of Judah were accustomed, even in
Chronicles, to exercise an unchallenged control over the Temple and
to regard the high-priests very much in the light of private
chaplains. Uzziah was wroth: he was at the zenith of his power and
glory; his heart was lifted up. Who were these priests, that they
should stand between him and Jehovah and dare to publicly check and
rebuke him in his own temple? Henry IIs feelings towards Becket
must have been mild compared to those of Uzziah towards Azariah,
who, if the king could have had his way, would doubtless have
shared the fate of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada. But a direct
intervention of Jehovah protected the priests, and preserved Uzziah
from further sacrilege. While his features were convulsed with
anger, leprosy brake forth in his forehead. The contest between
king and priest was at once ended; the priests thrust him out, and
he himself hasted to go, recognizing that Jehovah had smitten him.
Henceforth he lived apart, cut off from fellowship alike with man
and God, and his son Jotham governed in his stead. The book of
Kings simply makes the general statement that Uzziah was buried
with his fathers in the city of David; but the chronicler is
anxious that his readers should not suppose that the tombs of the
sacred house of David were polluted by the presence of a leprous
corpse: the explains that the leper was buried, not in the royal
sepulcher, but in the field attached to it.
The moral of this incident is obvious. In attempting to
understand its significance, we need not trouble ourselves about
the relative authority of kings and priests; the principle
vindicated by the punishment of Uzziah was the simple duty of
obedience to an express command of Jehovah. However trivial the
burning of incense may be in itself, it formed part of an elaborate
and complicated system of ritual. To interfere with the Divine
ordinances in one detail would mar the significance and
impressiveness of the whole Temple service. One arbitrary
innovation would be a precedent for others, and would constitute a
serious danger for a system whose value lay in continuous
uniformity. Moreover, Uzziah was stubborn in disobedience. His
attempt to burn incense might have been sufficiently punished by
the public and humiliating reproof of the high-priest. His leprosy
came upon him because, when thwarted in an unholy purpose, he gave
way to ungoverned passion.
In its consequences we see a practical application of the
lessons of the incident. How often is the sinner only provoked to
greater wickedness by the obstacles which Divine grace opposes to
his wrong-doing! How few men will tolerate the suggestion that
their intentions are cruel, selfish, or dishonorable! Remonstrance
is an insult, an offence against their personal dignity; they feel
that their self-respect demands that they should persevere in their
purpose, and that they should resent and punish
-
any one who has tried to thwart them. Uzziahs wrath was
perfectly natural; few men have been so uniformly patient of
reproof as not sometimes to have turned in anger upon those who
warned them against sin. The most dramatic feature of this episode,
the sudden frost of leprosy in the kings forehead, is not without
its spiritual antitype. Mens anger at well-merited reproof has
often blighted their lives once for all with ineradicable moral
leprosy. In the madness of passion they have broken bonds which
have hitherto restrained them and committed themselves beyond
recall to evil pursuits and fatal friendships. Let us take the most
lenient view of Uzziahs conduct, and suppose that he believed
himself entitled to offer incense; he could not doubt that the
priests were equally confident that Jehovah had enjoined the duty
on them, and them alone. Such a question was not to be decided by
violence, in the heat of personal bitterness. Azariah himself had
been unwisely zealous in bringing in his eighty priests; Jehovah
showed him that they were quite unnecessary, because at the last
Uzziah "himself hasted to go out." When personal passion and
jealousy are eliminated from Christian polemics, the Church will be
able to write the epitaph of the odium theologicum.
Uzziah was succeeded by Jotham, who had already governed for
some time as regent. In recording the favorable judgment of the
book of Kings, "He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah,
according to all that his father Uzziah had done," the chronicler
is careful to add, "Howbeit he entered not into the temple of
Jehovah"; the exclusive privilege of the house of Aaron had been
established once for all. The story of Jothams reign comes like a
quiet and pleasant oasis in the chroniclers dreary narrative of
wicked rulers, interspersed with pious kings whose piety failed
them in their latter days. Jotham shares with Solomon the
distinguished honor of being a king of whom no evil is recorded
either in Kings or Chronicles, and who died in prosperity, at peace
with Jehovah. At the same time it is probable that Jotham owes the
blameless character he bears in Chronicles to the fact that the
earlier narrative does not mention any misfortunes of his,
especially any misfortune towards the close of his life. Otherwise
the theological school from whom the chronicler derived, his later
traditions would have been anxious to discover or deduce some sin
to account for such misfortune. At the end of the short notice of
his reign, between two parts of the usual closing formula, an
editor of the book of Kings has inserted the statement that "in
those days Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin the king of
Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah." This verse the chronicler has
omitted; neither the date nor the nature of this trouble was clear
enough to cast any slur upon the character of Jotham.
Jotham, again, had the rewards of a pious king: he added a gate
to the Temple, and strengthened the wall of Ophel, and built cities
and castles in Judah; he made successful war upon Ammon, and
received from them an immense tribute-a hundred talents of silver,
ten thousand measures of wheat, and as much barley-for three
successive years. What happened afterwards we are not told. It has
been suggested that the amounts mentioned were paid in three yearly
installments, or that the three years were at the end of the reign,
and the tribute came to an end when Jotham died or when the
troubles with Pekah and Rezin began.
-
We have had repeated occasion to notice that in his accounts of
the good kings the chronicler almost always omits the qualifying
clause to the effect that they did not take away the high places.
He does so here but, contrary to his usual practice, he inserts a
qualifying clause of his own: "The people did yet corruptly." He
probably had in view the unmitigated wickedness of the following
reign, and was glad to retain the evidence that Ahaz found
encouragement and support in his idolatry; he is careful however,
to state the fact so that no shadow of blame falls upon Jotham.
The life of Ahaz has been dealt with elsewhere. Here we need
merely repeat that for the sixteen years of his reign Judah was to
all appearance utterly given over to every form of idolatry, and
was oppressed and brought low by Israel, Syria, and Assyria.
2 He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah
after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.
CLARKE, "He built Eloth - See the notes on 2Ki_14:21. This king
is called by several different names; see the note on 2Ki_15:1.
JAMISO, "He built Eloth or, He it was who built Eloth. The
account of the fortifications of this port on the Red Sea, which
Uzziah restored to the kingdom of Judah (2Ch_33:13), is placed
before the chronological notices (2Ch_26:3), either on account of
the importance attached to the conquest of Eloth, or from the
desire of the historian to introduce Uzziah as the king, who was
known as the conqueror of Eloth. Besides, it indicates that the
conquest occurred in the early part of his reign, that it was
important as a port, and that Hebrew merchants maintained the old
trade between it and the countries of the East [Bertheau].
ELLICOTT, "(2) He built.fie it was who built.
Eloth.Kings, Elath. The Idumean port on the Red Sea.
The first four verses are identical with the parallel in Kings.
(See the otes there.)
-
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 26:2 He built Eloth, and restored it to
Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.
Ver. 2. He built Eloth, &c.] See 2 Kings 14:22.
PULPIT, "Eloth; Hebrew, ; the parallel reads . This place was at
the head of the Gulf Akaba (2 Chronicles 8:17; 1 Kings 9:26); Judah
had lost hold of it at a past revolt of Edom, and Uzziah, after his
father's crippling of Edom, seizes the opportunity of making it
Judah's again and rebuilding it, thus finishing very probably a
work that he knew had been in his father's heart to do. This
consideration may explain alike the following clause in our verse.
and the placing of this here. Uzziah charged himself to do it the
first thing.
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he
reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mothers name was
Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem.
COFFMA, ""Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign"
(2 Chronicles 26:3). The youth of Uzziah probably accounts for the
fact that the conspirators against Amaziah waited so long to murder
him; for they had surely determined to do so as soon as he
worshipped the gods of Edom, an event that took place when Uzziah
was an infant.
"He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah" (2
Chronicles 26:4). As in the case of his father, this only means
that he began well. Later in the chapter, we learn of the
corruption that fell upon him.
His was a long and powerful reign indeed. "He successfully
defended Judah against the belligerent Ammonites, Philistines and
Arabians, developed a strong standing army, and rebuilt the
nation's fortifications. He even reopened the Red Sea port of
Eloth, and promoted commerce."[1] Eloth is the same as
Ezion-geber.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 26:3 Sixteen years old [was] Uzziah when he
began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem.
His mothers name also [was] Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
-
Ver. 3. Sixteen years old.] See 2 Kings 15:2.
PULPIT, "Jecoliah. This name is spelt Jecholiah in the parallel.
The character, however, is kappa in both texts. The meaning of the
name is, "Made strong of Jehovah." Another unreliable form of the
name is Jekiliah, the result probably of a mere clerical error.
4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his
father Amaziah had done.
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 26:4 And he did [that which was] right in
the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah
did.
Ver. 4. And he did that which was right.] See 2 Chronicles 25:2,
2 Kings 15:3.
PULPIT, "Right according to his father. His father's
comparatively long reign, sullied by two frightful stains, which
were fearfully visited with a long punishment and a fatal end, is
graciously recognized here for the good that was in it, and
apparently credited even with a "balance to the good."
5 He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him
in the fear[b] of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him
success.
-
BARES, "Who had understanding in the visions of God - Another
reading, supported by the Septuagint, and some ancient versions,
is: who instructed him in the fear of God.
CLARKE, "In the days of Zechariah - Who this was we know not,
but by the character that is given of him here. He was wise in the
visions of God - in giving the true interpretation of Divine
prophecies. He was probably the tutor of Uzziah.
GILL, "And he sought God in the days of Zechariah,.... Not that
Zechariah, the last of the prophets save one, he lived three
hundred years after this; nor he that Joash slew; but, as it may
seem, a son of his, perhaps the same with him in Isa_8:2,
who had understanding in the visions of God: who either had
prophetic visions granted to him, or had divine wisdom to interpret
such that others had; or, as others think, had a gift of
interpreting the prophecies of others, the writings of Moses and
David, &c. to which the Targum seems to agree; which
paraphrases it,"who taught in the fear of the Lord;''with which
agree the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; some copies read
"in the fear of God"; as an ancient manuscript mentioned by Junius,
and so the Talmud (l):
and, as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper; in
his kingdom, and against his enemies; even so long as he abode by
the word, worship, and ordinances of God, of which instances are
given, as follow.
JAMISO, "he sought God in the days of Zechariah a wise and pious
counsellor, who was skilled in understanding the meaning and
lessons of the ancient prophecies, and who wielded a salutary
influence over Uzziah.
BESO, "2 Chronicles 26:5. He sought God in the days of Zechariah
Who was probably the son of that Zechariah whom his grand-father
Joash slew. Who had understanding in the visions of God Either the
visions with which he himself was favoured, or the visions of the
preceding prophets. He was well skilled in prophecy, and conversed
much with the heavenly world; was an intelligent, devout, and good
man; and had such influence on Uzziah, that while he lived he
sought God, sought his favour, direction, and aid; trusted in him,
cleaved to him, and persisted in his worship, and in the true
religion. Happy are the great men who have such about them, and are
willing to be advised by them: but unhappy those who seek God only
while they have such with them, and have not a principle in
themselves to bear them out to the end.
-
ELLICOTT, "(5) And he sought God.And he continued to seek God
(the Hebrew is an expression peculiar to the chronicler).
In the days of Zechariah.An otherwise unknown prophet.
Who had understanding in the visions of God.Literally, the
skilled in seeing Goda surprising epithet, occurring nowhere else.
Some Hebrew MSS., and the LXX., Syriac, and Arabic versions, and
the Targum, read, in the fear of God. This is doubtless correct;
and the text should be rendered. who had understanding (or gave
instruction) in the fear of God. So the famous Rabbis, Rashi and
Kimchi, long since suggested. Zechariah was thus the guide and
counsellor of king Uzziah, and that not only in religious matters,
but in what we should call the political sphere; for in those days
the distinction between things sacred and secular, civil and
ecclesiastical, between Church and State, religion and common life,
was wholly unknown.
And as long as he sought.Literally, in the days of his
seeking.
The Lord, God . . .Such a mode of speech reveals the chroniclers
own hand.
Instead of this verse, 2 Kings 15:4 makes the deduction usual in
its estimate of the character of a reign: Only the high places were
not taken away; the people still used to sacrifice and burn incense
on the high places.
The power and prosperity of Uzziah are accounted for by the
chronicler on the ground that he sought God during the life of
Zechariah; although afterwards he offended by rashly intruding upon
the priests office, and was punished with leprosy (2 Chronicles
26:16-21).
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 26:5 And he sought God in the days of
Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long
as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.
Ver. 5. And he sought God.] Heb., Full in consulendo Deo, i.e.,
He was wholly taken up in consulting with God.
In the days of Zechariah.] Who was, saith Jerome, son to
Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. He had a daughter, say others, (a)
called Abijah, who became wife to king Ahaz, and mother to
Hezekiah.
Who had understanding in the visions of God.] Was a skilful seer
or prophet. Some render it, Who made to understand in the fear of
God.
-
And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.] So
fared it also with that great prince of late years, who, while he
stood to the true religion, was Bonus orbi, good of bereft, and
prospered in all his enterprises: but afterwards was Orbus boni,
bereft of good, and sped accordingly, as one wittily descanted upon
his name.
POOLE, "He sought God, i.e. he persisted in the true religion
and worship of God.
In the days of Zechariah; as long as he lived. Compare 2
Chronicles 24:2. who had understanding; who was a very knowing and
experienced person. Or, who made him understanding; or, who
instructed him; who was his tutor and teacher, and had great
authority and influence upon him; and so restrained him from those
exorbitancies to which he was otherwise inclined.
In the visions of God; either,
1. In prophetical visions, which he either received from God
himself, or understood and explained the prophetical visions of
others, which was a special gift of God; of which see Genesis 41:15
Daniel 1:17 2:19. Or,
2. In the law and word of God, which sometimes cometh under that
name, as Proverbs 29:18 Isaiah 22:1,5.
SIMEO, "COEXIO BETWEE DILIGECE AD PROSPERITY
2 Chronicles 26:5. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him
to prosper.
THE dispensation under which the Jews lived being of a temporal
nature, their advancement in respect of temporal prosperity was,
for the most part, proportioned to the regard which they, and their
rulers, shewed to God. The account given of Uzziah may serve almost
as a general history of Gods conduct towards them [ote: Leviticus
26:3-45.]: when he walked humbly before God, he was marvellously
helped till he was strong [ote: ver. 8, 15.]: but when, by his
pride and disobedience, he had provoked Gods heavy displeasure, he
was given over to destruction. The dispensation under which we live
is altogether spiritual; and God observes the same rule of
procedure towards us in spiritual things, as he maintained towards
them in temporal things.
Respecting the prosperity of our souls the text calls us to
notice two things;
I. Its dependence on God
[However diligent Uzziah was in seeking the Lord, it was God,
and God alone, that made him to prosper, And whatever means we may
use, our advancement in the divine life must be traced to the same
source. Our first inclinations to good originate with him. The
contiunance and increase of holy dispositions is in like manner
the
-
effect of his grace. If he were for one moment to suspend his
communications, we should be as incapable of bearing fruit to his
glory, as a branch is when severed from the tree. Let it only be
inquired wherein prosperity of soul consists [ote: A subjugation of
our passions; a victory over the world; an abiding sense and
enjoyment of the divine presence.]; and it will immediately appear,
that he must be the author of it in all its parts ]
II. Its connexion with our diligence
[The fruits of the earth are given us by God; yet he bestows his
bounties on those only who use the proper means for the attainment
of them. So does he also require exertion on our part in order to
our spiritual advancement. The means are inseparably connected with
the end: they are connected in Gods decree [ote: Ezekiel 36:37.
Matthew 7:7-8.]in the very nature of thingsand in the experience of
all the saints; and the more diligently we use the means, the more
will both grace and peace be multiplied unto us.]
From this subject we may derive matter,
1. For reproof
[How awfully does this reprove the careless sinner! for if all
our prosperity of soul be inseparably connected with diligence in
the ways of God, it is obvious that they who neglect the word of
God and prayer must be in a perishing condition. The backslider too
must feel himself condemned by the fact recorded in the text. It is
plainly intimated that Uzziah, through his remissness, experienced
a sad reverse. And such a reverse will all experience who relax
their diligence in the ways of God. Let us watch therefore against
secret declensions: and, if we have already declined, let us
repent, and do our first works [ote: Revelation 2:4-5.], and
strengthen, by exertion, the dying remnants of grace within us
[ote: Revelation 3:2.].]
2. For encouragement
[We cannot command success, either in temporal or spiritual
pursuits; yet in both it is found true, that the diligent hand
maketh rich. In some instances indeed God is found of them that
sought him not; and persons may use the means of grace without
receiving any sensible increase of grace or peace. evertheless this
is not Gods usual mode of proceeding; nor does he ever continue
either to bless the indolent, or to withhold his blessing from the
diligent. He never will suffer any to seek his face in vain [ote:
Isaiah 45:19.]. Let this then encourage all to persevere in the use
of means, knowing assuredly that their labour shall not be in vain
in the Lord.]
PULPIT, "In the days of Zechariah. Twice in the foregoing
chapter we have read of "a man of God" and "a prophet" whose names
are not given. The chariness of the narrative in this exact respect
is not very explicable, for if the simple reason be assumed to be
that they were not of much repute, now when the name of
Zechariah
-
is given, all that we can say is that nothing else is known of
him. Had understanding; Hebrew, . There seems no reason to divest
this hiph. conjugation form of its stricter signification, "gave
understanding "(see Isaiah 40:14). In the visions of God; Hebrew, .
Some slight discrepancy in the usual fuller writing of the word in
some manuscripts lends a little ground of preference for the
reading, which a few manuscripts evidently had, of ; i.e. "in the
fear of God" (Proverbs 1:7; Isaiah 11:3); either reading in either
of these sub-clauses leaves an undisturbed good meaning to the
description of Zechariah.
BI, "And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to
prosper.
Soul prosperity
I. The seekers of the Lord.
1. Every real seeker of the Lord must be a heaven-born soul
(Joh_3:8). This involves the bestowment of a Divine existence, the
creating of a new nature (2Pe_1:4). This is the nature that
habitually seeks after God.
2. Seeking the Lord includes
(1) Worshipping.
(2) Wrestling.
(3) Waiting.
II. Their experience of prosperity. If you ask a worldling what
constitutes prosperity he will say, Many excellent bargains, good
customers, ready money, quick returns, the accumulation of
property, health, friends, extended connections, and the like. But
what is Christian prosperity?
1. Spiritual growth.
2. Triumphant victories. The life of a Christian is the life of
a conqueror.
3. The taking of spoils from the vanquished foe. The most
valuable lessons are often learnt from the heaviest calamities.
III. The extension of prosperity: As long as he sought the Lord.
(Joseph Irons.)
The secret of strength and its perils
I. We have the marvellous help which Jehovah gives to a
rightly-purposed man, and its consequences. No one can suppose that
Judah was very prosperous before the accession of that king. For,
not only had it been humbled at the battle of Beth-Shemesh, but
Jerusalem itself had been ravaged and partially dismantled. And,
considering the extreme youth of the king, only sixteen years of
age when he came to the throne, one would naturally have expected
to read of the gradual increase of the disorders of the kingdom
through the contests of opposing factions, and of its gradual
diminution and enthralment through the successes of its enemies.
But, on the contrary, the first thing recorded of Uzziah is that he
built Eloth and restored it to Judah; and thenceforward, throughout
the greater part of his reign, the story of no single disaster or
defeat interrupts the current of prosperity. First of all the
Philistines, and then the Arabs, the
-
Mehunim, and the Ammonites were compelled to restore to Judah
the cities they had before appropriated, were, indeed, in some
instances reduced to the condition of tributary nations. And the
internal administration of the country was not less fortunate than
its external relationships. Jerusalem was refortified, and for the
first time in Biblical history we read of engines, invented by
cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot
arrows and great stones withal. And he built towers in the desert,
and digged many wells; for he had much cattle, both in the low
country and in the plains; husbandmen also and vinedressers in the
mountains and in Carmel; for he loved husbandry. Everything shows
that the kingdom reached a condition of prosperity such as it had
not known since the days of Solomon. And the explanation of it all
is the marvellous help of the Almighty. You may see it in almost
all aspects and exigencies of lifethe wonderful help of God making
s Christian prosperous and strong. It is quite true that we
sometimes trouble ourselves, as Uzziah must have often in those
difficult years troubled himself, with the thought that we have no
inherent ability for the work which God gives us to do, whether it
be work of service or of sanctification. But in that imagination we
are altogether wrong, and therefore wrong in letting ourselves be
depressed and unnerved by it. For the Scriptural doctrine always is
that it is the marvellous help of God that makes a man strong, that
no man is or can become strong, in any religious sense of that
word, apart from such help. Work out your own salvation, for it is
God that worketh in you. There can be no other explanation of the
prosperity of Uzziah, his conquest of difficulties greater than
ours, his faithfulness under burdens heavier than ours, than simply
that God, because of his faith in God, helped him. And in all
times, when duty, sorrow, responsibility, or doubt presses upon
ourselves, we can adopt a course that has never failed, and
resolve, I will seek unto God, and unto God will I commit my cause,
which doeth great things, and unsearchable, marvellous things
without number . . . to set up on high those that be low, that
those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
II. The peril of prosperity, which was too great a peril for
uzziah. His splendid career elated him, and his heart was lifted up
to his destruction. Instead of reverent praise to God for having
helped him so marvellously, he began to flatter himself with the
thought that his success had been achieved by his own wisdom and
skill, and he transgressed against the Lord, and went into the
temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. It is
easy to find excuses for Uzziah, which are sufficient to protect
him from our blame, but not sufficient to reduce the heinousness of
his sin in the sight of God. It might, for instance, be said that
his old godly counsellor Zechariah had lately died. Or it might be
said that he was but imitating the conduct of his father, of
Jeroboam, of the idolatrous kings around him. But, whatever our
charity may dispose us to urge in palliation, the fact remains that
he showed his gratitude to God for the marvellous help he had
received by setting at nought the express commandment of God. For
when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed, their brazen censers
were made into broad plates for a covering of the altar to be a
memorial unto the children of Israel (so runs the law) that no
stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer
incense before the Lord. Nor can Uzziah have forgotten that law. It
was, indeed, when he became wrath with the faithful priests who
reminded him of it, and pressed forward with his censer, that that
moment the leprosy rose up to his forehead, and,
conscience-smitten, he hastened out of the temple. Just think of
the contrast which that sin caused between the earlier and the
later parts of Uzziahs reign. There is another place in the Old
Testament where that warning is embedded in associations of even
greater interest than thesethe song of Moses in the thirty-second
chapter of Deuteronomy. The marvellous works which God had wrought
for Israel are enumerated first. Then follow
-
the ungrateful exaltation of Israel in their own eyes, their
desertion of God, and the wrath they thereby brought quickly upon
themselves. It is just a type of the process that takes place in
many hearts. First of all, God blesses us, enables us to do what
otherwise we could not possibly have done, makes us great in
control over ourselves, and perhaps, also, in influence over
others. We, in some crisis of temptation, listen to the whisper
that it was our own hand that made us strong; self-complacency
begets presumption; until at last conscience smites us; we know
ourselves to be leprous in spirit in the sight of God, and the
self-built fabric of prosperity crumbles in a moment. Blessed for
us if the Lord gives us what He gave Uzziahseven quiet years for
penitence, thought, and humbler service. It may be well to linger a
little upon the different stages of this process, which sometimes
leads a godly man from strength to leprosy. Obviously pride was at
the bottom of Uzziahs sin. Uzziah seems to have thought,
Philistines and Ammonites, its I have defeated them, and my name
which they applaud and fear even to the entering in of Egypt. My
father left the kingdom circumscribed, so reduced that he had to
give hostages to Joash; I have made it great and free. And still
whenever by the help of God we have done any useful work, we are
liable to a similar temptation, to attribute to ourselves the
credit of having done it, and in our self-complacency to forget and
to dishonour God. There is nothing but sin, failure, and ruin to be
found in yielding to that temptation. For the immediate and
necessary consequence of pride is presumption, which, though it may
not take the exact form it took in the case of Uzziah, may take an
equally sinful form. One form it often assumes now, in the case of
men whose real knowledge of God is very defective, is that of
patronising the Gospel. But much as that habit of thought requires
to be guarded against, it is probably in other directions that most
of us are more apt to err. The remembrance of what we have done by
the help of God prompts us to attempt what we have to do apart from
His help, with confidence in ourselves as sufficient for it, with a
neglect of Divine aid as more or less unnecessary and superfluous.
Any particle of the pride which leads us to attribute to ourselves
the success of the past, whatever the particular form or particular
associations of that pride, is a mistake even according to human
judgment, an element of weakness which will grievously impede us,
and a sin in the sight of God. And, whilst that principle teaches
us what is forbidden, it teaches us also what is enjoined. Pride
always means folly and failure. And therefore trust in God, the
more perfect and supreme the better, means wisdom and success. It
was whilst Uzziah looked unto God that he was marvellously helped
and made strong. And it will be in proportion as we trust in
Jehovah that we shall have vigour to finish and patience to bear
whatever He gives us to endure or to do. (R. W. Moss.)
Destroyed by prosperity
I. Uzziahs prosperous career. He was marvellously helped till he
was strong. His good fortune, as the world would call it, dated
from his seventeenth year. It was a trying position for a mere boy
to be placed in; for the cares and responsibilities, as well as the
temptations and luxuries, of a royal palace demand a ripe wisdom
and strength of moral purpose rarely found at so early an age. But
Gods grace could qualify even so young a man for the task; and I am
struck with the fact, that almost every one of the good kings of
Judah was quite a youth when he succeeded to the throne. There is
no reason why the season of young manhood should be given up to
passion and frivolity. It was a great advantage to the young Uzziah
that he had the loyal attachment and confidence of his people. But
what mainly guarded him from the dangers around him, and kept him
steady on his throne, was a sincere piety. Never forget the quarter
from whence all true
-
prosperity must come. Success does not depend on yourselves
alone. Still less does it come from chance. Take God with you into
all the affairs of life. Look to Him to bless your business. Ask
His help in every fresh enterprise you undertake.
II. His marvellous presumption. But when he was strong, his
heart was lifted up to his destruction. It requires special grace
to keep a man right when he has had a career of unbroken
prosperity. One day, when the celebrated George Whitfield was about
to commence the service, an intimation was read out from the desk
below: The prayers of the congregation are desired for a young man
who has become heir to an immense fortune, and who feels he has
much need of grace to keep him humble in the midst of his riches.
Nothing tries a man so much as the favour of fortune and the
flattery of the world.
III. The note of warning. As there are many kinds of prosperity,
so there are many kinds of presumption. A man may be lifted up to
his destruction, for example
1. By the pride of money. It does not take a large fortune to
make some people purse-proud and very disagreeable people these
are.
2. The pride of intellect. I wish to put you on your guard
against a current which is running very strong in our day. I mean
the tendency to set up the reason against religion. Perhaps I might
mention
3. Pride of wit. Now I go in for a sunny, cheerful religion. God
has, put within us a faculty of mirthfulness, which He did not mean
us to suppress. There is no necessary connection between dulness
and piety, between a long face and a new heart. True, but there are
some men who are hardly ever serious. (J. T. Davidson, D. D.)
The rise and the fall
To be successful or prosperous, to get on in the world, or to be
strong, is what every one, be his position what it may, longs for
and struggles after. Prosperity is a relative term. A king is
prosperous or strong when from strength of character and purity of
life he has secured the confidence and love of his people, and the
respect of neighbouring sovereigns and nations. A merchant is
prosperous when his dealings are followed by remunerative gains. A
minister of Jesus Christ is prosperous when he benefits souls and
instructs mens minds, and leads them to think of something higher
and more lasting than the passing show of the world. To be
prosperous, to be strong, is in one word to get on in ones own
department, and at ones peculiar work. Whatever success be ours we
ought to acknowledge that God has been with us. It is just here
that men are so often thoughtless and ungrateful, and have their
heart lifted up to destruction. We see this often in the case
1. Of individuals.
2. Of families.
3. Of Churches.
4. Of nations. (W. Mackintosh Arthur, M.A.)
Uzziah-his sin and punishment
Rightly to apprehend Uzziahs sin, we must remember through what
barriers he had to
-
break before he could resolve to do this thing. He had to
disregard the direct command of Jehovah that the priests alone
should burn incense on His altar. He had to despise the history of
his people, to reject the solemn lessons that he had learned from
childhood. He was defiling his own sacred things; the Jewish
history was the history of his own people, the charter of his own
blessings; the temple and the priesthood were the solemn ordinances
of his own worship. He was impiously defying the holy name by which
he himself was called.
I. Prosperity and pride. Uzziah did that which was right in the
sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did.
And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding
in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made
him to prosper. The results of godly training and holy
companionship are often seen in the prudence, and diligence, and
sobriety which command success and reputation. The modes of life
which the influence of the gospel forms, which are the tradition of
Christian households, are just those which conduce to happiness and
honour. Mere worldly prosperity is often the prelude to daring
impiety. It is a perpetual question how to remove the hireling
spirit out of the Church. Men whose ships bring them wealth, whose
plans in business succeed, come to fancy themselves fit for any
place of responsibility in the Church. Churches love to pay honour
to men of wealth; choose for places of special service, not those
of pure heart, and fervent faith, and lowly self-denial, but those
who have succeeded in business, and whose plans, it is therefore
thought, must needs be followed. Uzziah was a good king, but he was
a bad priest; he was not the priest whom God had chosen. Men whose
godliness, and integrity, and Christian conduct have won them
respect are most valuable helps in all Christian activities. But
mere worldly success is a poor standard by which to measure these
things, and ought never to be allowed to secure to any voice and
direction in Church affairs. It appertains not to these to burn
incense unto the Lord. It is a matter of personal experience how
prosperity lifts up the heart, and lures us to destruction. Blessed
are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
II. Pride and punishment. Here now, you may be ready to say, is
something in the story which is simply Jewish, quite foreign to the
life of to-day. Do you mean to say that God visits men with
judgments now? Is there anything here to come home to the hearts of
Englishmen? I do say that God is judging us; the same God who
judged His people of old. There is in this very part of the
narrative something to set us thinking on the mysteries of our
daily life, and to help in their interpretation. Suppose, now, a
physician had given us a purely medical report of this incident.
Suppose he had told us that there was in Uzziah an unsuspected
taint of leprosy: a taint which, if he had been careful of himself,
especially avoiding strong passionate excitements, might never have
developed into actual symptoms of disease. Hereditary or
constitutional disease may often lurk for a lifetime unsuspected,
till some circumstance favours its development, and instantaneously
it works itself out in all its power. Of all such favouring
circumstances, strong passionate excitement is the surest; in the
heat of pride the seeds of sickness are frequently quickened. What
stories are more impressive or more common than those of men
suddenly stricken down on the eve of the gratification of their
pride, in the first thrill of triumph, in the very fever of
unbridled ambition? A man has been all his lifetime amassing
wealth; satisfied at length, he builds himself a lordly mansion,
that he may rank with the nobles of the land. He builds, but he
never enjoys ithe is found some morning smitten with impotence; and
the palsied speech-muscles refuse to articulate a word. A statesmen
is summoned to the royal presence-chamber; at the council-table the
blood-stain at his lips declares that honours and life will soon be
laid together in the dust. A student is called to preside over some
learned body; his brain gives way, and the
-
asylum is henceforth his home. Instead of leprosy, read
paralysis or haemorrhage, or softening of the brain, and it is just
a narrative from our daily press. Say what we will, this is true,
that pride and passion, unregulated ambition and impious
recklessness, do terribly punish those whom they enslave. The
Jewish story interprets the English life. If Englishman trace these
things to natural causes, and go no further, while the Jew says,
God has smitten him, the Jew is right and the Englishman is wrong.
It is a sign of unbelief and folly to refuse to trace Gods hands,
save in events that are utterly unintelligible. Gods great work is
to reveal, not to hide Himself. It is part of His order of nature
that bodily pains should often reveal and rebuke the workings of an
ungodly soul. The hour of pride is often, too, an hour of terrible
revelation of hidden spiritual taints; which of us has not found
secret sine leaping to light in the heats of unbridled passion? We
flattered ourselves that God made us to prosper because we sought
Him. Our seeking of Him became a tradition of the past, a memory;
we thought we had overcome our temptations, laid aside our easily
besetting sin; and, even while we boasted, we fell before God and
men. We have thanked God we were not as other men; suddenly we have
had to change our boasting, we have known ourselves the chief of
sinners. As long as we seek God, He will make us to prosper; but
only so long. Keep we ever near Him, ever following Him, ever
obeying and trusting Him, and we shall be marvellously helped and
be strong.
III. Punishment and shame. Hope concerning Uzziah is given in
the record of his hasting to go out of the temple. His proud heart
was broken; he was smitten with shame. There needed not the
priests, the valiant men, to thrust him out: Yea, himself hasted
also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. It may have been
mere terror that drove him forth, the force of circumstances, and
not a convicted, penitent heart. His self-abasement may have been
as godless as was his exaltation. It may have been so; but it may
have been far otherwise. Assuredly God intended it to be otherwise.
Of the seven years that he spent in the several house we know
nothing; of this we may be sure, that during all those years God
was seeking to restore and save his soul. In solitude, while his
son was over his kingdom, and regents were doing the work God had
taken from his hands, he might have learnt many a lesson he had not
learnt upon the throne. The dignity and service forfeited through
pride may be never regained. A stain may cling to the name; the
reputation long held honourable, and lost through a shameful fall,
may not even after death be recovered. Sons may blush more over the
dishonourable grave and the one terrible sin of their fathers than
they triumph in the glory of a whole life. Impiety is a fearful
thing, and has a fearful curse. (A. Mackennal, B.A.)
The religious element necessary in commonwealths
We need more than animals to make a commonwealth worth
preserving; we need more than bodies, and more than what is
usually, but too narrowly, denominated practical substance; we need
the religious element, the spiritual force, that marvellous
telescopic faculty that looks away beyond the visible into that
which is unseen. We need to have ghostly men among us; men who see
the metaphysical in the literal; men who know that nothing is true
that is not metaphysically true; men who insist that we see nothing
with the naked eye, and that vision is a heart-gift, an inward
faculty, a sublime treasure entrusted to men of God. Thus the
Church will always have an important part to play in the upbuilding
of the State, in the government of kings, in the direction of great
affairs. (J. Parker, D.D.)
-
6 He went to war against the Philistines and broke down the
walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. He then rebuilt towns near Ashdod
and elsewhere among the Philistines.
BARES, "Uzziahs expedition was the natural sequel to the Edomite
war of Amaziah 2Ch_25:11, which crushed the most formidable of all
the tribes of the south. On Jabneh see Jos_15:11 note; and on
Ashdod see Jos_13:3 note.
GILL, "And he went forth, and warred against the
Philistines,.... Who in the times of Jehoram broke in upon Judah,
and distressed them, 2Ch_21:16.
and brake down the wall of Gath; which was one of the five
principalities of the Philistines:
and the wall of Jabneh; nowhere else mentioned in Scripture, but
frequent in the Jewish writings; where the sanhedrim sometimes sat,
and where was a famous university, and from whence sprung many of
the Jewish rabbins; it is the same which in some writers is called
Jamnia, and was a port near to Joppa; and belonged to the tribe of
Dan, as Josephus (m) writes:
and the wall of Ashdod: another of the principalities of the
Philistines, the same with the Azotus of the New Testament; he
dismantled all these places:
and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines; where
he placed garrisons to keep them in awe; see Amo_1:8.
JAMISO, "he went forth and warred against the Philistines He
overcame them in many engagements - dismantled their towns, and
erected fortified cities in various parts of the country, to keep
them in subjection.
Jabneh the same as Jabneel (Jos_15:11).
K&D, "Wars, buildings, and army of Uzziah. - Of the
successful undertakings by which Uzziah raised the kingdom of Judah
to greater worldly power and prosperity,
-
nothing is said in the book of Kings; but the fact itself is
placed beyond all doubt, for it is confirmed by the portrayal of
the might and greatness of Judah in the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa
2-4), which date from the times of Uzziah and Jotham.
2Ch_26:6
After Uzziah had, in the very beginning of his reign, completed
the subjection of the Edomites commenced by his father by the
capture and fortification of the seaport Elath (2Ch_26:2), he took
the field to chastise the Philistines and Arabians, who had under
Joram made an inroad upon Judah and plundered Jerusalem
(2Ch_21:16.). In the war against the Philistines he broke down the
walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod (i.e., after capturing these
cities), and built cities in Ashdod, i.e., in the domain of Ashdod,
and
! , i.e., in other domains of the Philistines, whence we gather
that he had wholly subdued Philistia. The city of Gath had been
already taken from the Philistines by David; see 1Ch_18:1; and as
to situation, see on 1Ch_11:8. Jabneh, here named for the first
time, but probably occurring in Jos_15:11 under the name Jabneel,
is often mentioned under the name Jamnia in the books of the
Maccabees and in Josephus. It is now a considerable village,
Jebnah, four hours south of Joppa, and one and a half hours from
the sea; see on Jos_15:11. Ashdod is now a village called Esdud;
see on Jos_13:3.
BESO, "2 Chronicles 26:6. And brake down the wall of Gath Which
had been taken by Hazael, in the days of Joash his grand-father,
chap. 2 Kings 12:17; but was either relinquished by him, because it
lay so far from his other dominions; or retaken by the Philistines,
who had now repaired its fortifications and kept it.
ELLICOTT, "(6) And he went forth and warred against the
Philistines.At the outset of his reign this able prince had given
promise of his future by seizing and fortifying the port of Elath,
and thus probably completing the subjugation of Edom, which his
father had more than begun. Afterwards he assumed the offensive
against the Philistines, Arabs, and Maonites, who had invaded the
country under his predecessors (2 Chronicles 21:16; 2 Chronicles
20:1).
Brake down the wall of Gath.After taking the city. (As to Gath,
see 1 Chronicles 18:1; 2 Chronicles 11:8.)
Jabneh.The Jamnia of Maccabees and Josephus; now the village of
Jebnah, about twelve miles south of Joppa (the same as Jabneel,
Joshua 15:11).
Ashdod.Esdd. (Comp. Joshua 13:3.) Like Gath, one of the five
sovereign states of the Philistines. It commanded the great road to
Egypt; hence its possession was of first-rate importance to the
contending military powers of Egypt and Assyria. Sargon captured it
B.C. 719. (Comp. Isaiah 20:1.)
About Ashdod.In Ashdod, i.e., in the canton so called.
And among the Philistines.That is, elsewhere in their territory.
Uzziah appears to have reduced the Philistines to a state of
complete vassalage. They were not, however, annexed to Judah, but
ruled by their own kings.
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ELLICOTT, "UZZIAHS CAMPAIGS, PUBLIC WORKS, AD MILITARY STREGTH
(2 Chronicles 26:6-15).
This section is peculiar to the Chronicles. Although the book of
Kings passes over the facts recorded here, they are essential to
forming a right conception of the strength and importance of the
southern kingdom during the age of Uzziah and Jotham; and they are
fully corroborated, not only by comparison with the data of Isaiah
(Isaiah 2-4) upon the same subject, but also by the independent
testimony of the cuneiform inscriptions of the period. (See ote on
2 Kings 14:28.) Thus we find that the warlike Assyrian
Tiglath-pileser II. chastised Hamath for its alliance with Judah
during this reign, but abstained from molesting Uzziah himselfa
telling proof, as Schrader says, for the accuracy of the Biblical
account of Uzziahs well-founded power. The name of Uzziah is
conspicuously absent from the list of western princes who, in B.C.
738, sent tribute to Tiglath: Hystaspes (Kushtashpi), king of
Commagene (Kummuha), Rezin, king of the country of the Damascenes,
Menahem of the city of the Samaritans, Hiram of the city of the
Tyrians, Sibitti-bili of the city of the Giblites or Byblos, Urikki
of Kui, Pisiris of Carchemish, Eniel of Hamath, Panammu of Samal,
and nine other sovereigns, including those of Tabal and Arabia. The
list thus comprises Hittites and Arameans, princes of Hither Asia,
Phoenicia, and Arabia. The omission of Uzziah argues that the king
of Judah felt himself strong enough to sustain the shock of
collision with Assyria in case of need. He must have reckoned on
the support of the surrounding states (also not mentioned in the
above list), viz., Ashdod, Ascalon, Gaza, Edom, Ammon, Moab,
&c. (Schrader, Keilinschr., p. 252, seq.).
TRAPP, "2 Chronicles 26:6 And he went forth and warred against
the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of
Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and
among the Philistines.
Ver. 6. And the wall of Jabneh.] Which was a strong city by the
seaside, not more than three hours travel from Gath, saith
Adrichomius.
POOLE, "Gath had been taken by Hazael in the days of Joash his
grandfather, 2 Kings 12:17, but was either relinquished by him,
because it lay so far from his other dominions; or retaken by the
Philistines, who had now repaired its fortifications, and kept
it.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 26:6-15) The strength, security, and
fame of Uzziahs reign.
ow he went out and made war against the Philistines, and broke
down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod;
and he built cities around Ashdod
-
and among the Philistines. God helped him against the
Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gur Baal, and
against the Meunites. Also the Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah.
His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became
exceedingly strong. And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the
Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the corner buttress of the
wall; then he fortified them. Also he built towers in the desert.
He dug many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the lowlands
and in the plains; he also had farmers and vinedressers in the
mountains and in Carmel, for he loved the soil. Moreover Uzziah had
an army of fighting men who went out to war by companies, according
to the number on their roll as prepared by Jeiel the scribe and
Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the kings
captains. The total number of chief officers of the mighty men of
valor was two thousand six hundred. And under their authority was
an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, that made
war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. Then
Uzziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears,
helmets, body armor, bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made
devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers
and the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame
spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became
strong.
a. He went out and made ware against the Philistines: Uzziah was
active in opposing the ancient enemies of the Israelites. The
Philistines may also have been active against Judah in the not too
distant past, perhaps being among those who came with the Arabians
and massacred many of the royal family of David (2 Chronicles
22:1).
i. With this heart to make war against their ancient enemies, no
wonder that God helped him against the Philistines.
ii. The Philistines lost two of their major cities, Gath and
Ashdod as well as Jabneh. The latter was formerly Jabneel of Judah
(Joshua 15:11) and later became Jamnia where the Sanhedrin was
re-formed after Jerusalems destruction in A.D. 70. (Selman)
b. The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah: This was another
example of the strength of Uzziahs kingdom. He exacted tribute from
the Ammonites, which was like a tax that recognized their lower
place under Judah.
c. His fame spread . . . he built towers . . . He dug many wells
. . . Uzziah had an army . . . he made devices in Jerusalem: Uzziah
was a remarkable king, who had a broad interest in the improvement
of his kingdom. Because of his many achievements, it was fitting
that his fame spread among other nations.
i. The reality of Uzziahs towers of the desert (of arid southern
Judah) has been validated by the discovery of an eighth-century
tower at Qumran. (Payne)
ii. Repairs in Jerusalem were necessitated by the damage
incurred during the previous reign (note the specific mention of
the Corner Gate in 2 Chronicles 25:23) and possibly by an
earthquake (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5). (Selman)
-
iii. One unique description of Uzziah is that he loved the soil.
This shows that he had a mind and a heart for more than technology
and fame; he also had an interest in practical matters and things
that benefited the majority of his people.
iv. This is a perfection in a king: on husbandry every state
depends. Let their trade or commerce be what they may, there can be
no true national prosperity if agriculture do not prosper; for the
king himself is served by the field. (Clarke)
d. He made devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men, to be
on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones:
There is some debate and even controversy as to if these were
defensive or offensive inventions. If it does describe the
inven