State of Judah at the Accession of Uzziah - Account of his Reign in the Book of Kings - Re-

occupation of Elath - Religious Condition of Judah - Expedition against the Philistines and

neighboring Tribes - Occupation of Trans-Jordanic Territory -Restoration and Extension of the

Fortifications of Jerusalem -Re-organization - Prosperity of the Country - Growing Pride and

Corruption - The Sacrilege of Uzziah - His Leprosy and Death -Jewish Legends. (2 KINGS 15:1-

7; 2 CHRONICLES 26)

WHATEVER motives had determined the selection of Uzziah by all the people of Judah as

successor to his murdered father (2 Kings 14:21), the choice proved singularly happy. To adapt the

language of the prophet Amos (9:11), which, as mostly all prophetic announcements of the

Messianic future, takes for its starting and connecting point reference to the present, easily

understood, and hence full of meaning to contemporaries - Uzziah found, on his accession, "the

tabernacle of David," if not "fallen" and in "ruins," yet with threatening "breaches" in it. Never had

the power of Judah sunk lower than when, after the disastrous war with Is rael, the heir of David

was tributary to Jehoash, and the broken walls of Jerusalem laid the city open and defenseless at

the feet of the conqueror. This state of things was absolutely reversed during the reign of Uzziah;

and at its close Judah not only held the same place as Israel under the former reign, but surpassed

it in might and glory.

There can be little doubt that Jeroboam II. retained the hold over Judah which his father Jehoash

had gained; and this, not only during the fifteen years after his accession, in which Amaziah of

Judah still occupied the throne, but even in the beginning of the reign of Uzziah. For "breaches"

such as those that had been made are not speedily repaired, and Uzziah was, at his accession, a

youth of only sixteen years (2 Kings 15:2). We therefore incline to the view that the otherwise

unintelligible notice (2 Kings 15:1), that Uzziah acceded "in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam"

bears reference to the time when he had shaken off the suzerainty of Jeroboam, and "began to

reign" in the real sense of the term.

This would make the period of Judah's liberation the twenty-seventh after Jeroboam's accession,

and the twelfth after the elevation of Uzziah to the throne, when that monarch was twenty-eight

years of age.*

* This is the view of Kleinert in Riehm's Hand-Worterb ii. p. 1704a. Others have regarded the

numeral 27 ( zk ) as a clerical error for 15 ( wf ). In any case Uzziah could not have acceded in the

27th year of Jeroboam, as appears from a comparison with 2 Kings 1 4:2, 17, 23.

Important though the reign of Uzziah was - chiefly from a political, but also from a religious point

of view - the writer of the Book of Kings gives only a few and these the briefest notices of it. In

fact, he may be said only to single out t he leading characteristics of that period. As regards

political events, he marks the beginning of the recovery of Judah's power in the occupation of the

important harbor of Elath, and the rebuilding of that town (2 Kings 14:22). This, as we shall show

reas on for believing, probably in the early years of the accession of Uzziah.*

* This seems even implied by the otherwise strange addition in 2 Kings 14:22: "after the king fell

asleep." Comp. the same in 2 Chronicles 26:2.

As always, he records the age of the new king and the duration of his reign, as well as the name of

his mother (2 Kings 15:2). If the suggestion previously made is correct, he also notices the exact