2 Chronicles 26

1 All the people of Judah chose Uzziah, though he was but sixteen years of age, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father Amaziah.
2 He rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah; this was after King Amaziah had gone to rest with his ancestors.
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother, named Jecoliah, was from Jerusalem.
4 He pleased the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.
5 He was prepared to seek God as long as Zechariah lived, who taught him to fear God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
6 He went out and fought the Philistines and razed the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod (and built cities in the district of Ashdod and in Philistia).
7 God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who dwelt in Gurbaal, and against the Meunites.
8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah and his fame spread as far as Egypt, for he grew stronger and stronger.
9 Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.
10 He built towers in the desert and dug numerous cisterns, for he had many cattle. He had plowmen in the foothills and the plains, and vinedressers in the highlands and the garden land. He was a lover of the soil.
11 Uzziah also had a standing army of fit soldiers divided into bands according to the number in which they were mustered by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the recorder, under the command of Hananiah, one of the king's officials.
12 The entire number of family heads over these valiant warriors was two thousand six hundred,
13 and at their disposal was a mighty army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred fighting men of great valor to help the king against his enemies.
14 Uzziah provided for them--for the entire army--bucklers, lances, helmets, breastplates, bows and slingstones.
15 He also built machines in Jerusalem, devices contrived to stand on the towers and at the angles of the walls to shoot arrows and cast large stones. His fame spread far and wide, and his power was ascribed to the marvelous help he had received.
16 But after he had become strong, he became proud to his own destruction and broke faith with the LORD, his God. He entered the temple of the LORD to make an offering on the altar of incense.
17 But Azariah the priest, and with him eighty other priests of the LORD, courageous men, followed him.
18 They opposed King Uzziah, saying to him: It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been consecrated for this purpose. Leave the sanctuary, for you have broken faith and no longer have a part in the glory that comes from the LORD God.
19 Uzziah, who was holding a censer for burning the incense, became angry, but at the moment he showed his anger to the priests, while they were looking at him in the house of the LORD beside the altar of incense, leprosy broke out on his forehead.
20 Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests examined him, and when they saw that his forehead was leprous, they expelled him from the temple. He himself fled willingly, for the LORD had afflicted him.
21 King Uzziah remained a leper to the day of his death. As a leper he dwelt in a segregated house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD. Therefore his son Jotham was regent of the palace and ruled the people of the land.
22 The prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, wrote the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last.
23 Uzziah rested with his ancestors; he was buried with them in the field adjoining the royal cemetery, for they said, He was a leper. His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

2 Chronicles 27

1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Jerusa, daughter of Zadok.
2 He pleased the LORD just as his father Uzziah had done, though he did not enter the temple of the LORD; the people, however, continued to act sinfully.
3 He built the upper gate of the LORD'S house and had much construction done on the wall of Ophel.
4 Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forest land he set up fortresses and towers.
5 He fought with the king of the Ammonites and conquered them. That year the Ammonites paid him one hundred talents of silver, together with ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. They brought the same to him also in the second and in the third year.
6 Thus Jotham continued to grow strong because he lived resolutely in the presence of the LORD, his God.
7 The rest of the acts of Jotham, his wars and his activities, can be found written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
8 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
9 Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, and his son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

2 Chronicles 28

1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not please the LORD as his forefather David had done,
2 but conducted himself like the kings of Israel and even made molten idols of the Baals.
3 Moreover, he offered sacrifice in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and immolated his sons by fire according to the abominable practice of the nations which the LORD had cleared out before the Israelites.
4 He offered sacrifice and incense on the high places, on hills, and under every leafy tree.
5 Therefore the LORD, his God, delivered him into the power of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and carried away captive a large number of his people, whom they brought to Damascus. He was also delivered into the power of the king of Israel, who defeated him with great slaughter.
6 For Pekah, son of Remaliah, slew one hundred and twenty thousand of Judah in a single day, all of them valiant men, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.
7 Zichri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the master of the palace, and also Elkanah, who was second to the king.
8 The Israelites took away as captives two hundred thousand of their brethren's wives, sons and daughters; they also took from them much plunder, which they brought to Samaria.
9 In Samaria there was a prophet of the LORD by the name of Oded. He went out to meet the army returning to Samaria and said to them: It was because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah that he delivered them into your hands. You, however, have slaughtered them with a fury that has reached up to heaven.
10 And now you are planning to make the children of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves and bondwomen. Are not you yourselves, therefore, guilty of a crime against the LORD, your God?
11 Now listen to me: send back the captives you have carried off from among your brethren, for the burning anger of the LORD is upon you.
12 At this, some of the Ephraimite leaders, Azariah, son of Johanan, Berechiah, son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah, son of Shallum, and Amasa, son of Hadlai, themselves stood up in opposition to those who had returned from the war.
13 They said to them: Do not bring the captives here, for what you propose will make us guilty before the LORD and increase our sins and our guilt. Our guilt is already great, and there is a burning anger upon Israel.
14 Therefore the soldiers left their captives and the plunder before the princes and the whole assembly.
15 Then the men just named proceeded to help the captives. All of them who were naked they clothed from the booty; they clothed them, put sandals on their feet, gave them food and drink, anointed them, and all who were weak they set on asses. They brought them to Jericho, the city of palms, to their brethren. Then they returned to Samaria.
16 At that time King Ahaz sent an appeal for help to the kings of Assyria.
17 The Edomites had returned, attacked Judah, and carried off captives.
18 The Philistines too had raided the cities of the foothills and the Negeb of Judah; they captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its dependencies, Timnah and its dependencies, and Gimzo and its dependencies, and occupied them.
19 For the LORD had brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel, who let Judah go its own way and proved utterly faithless to the LORD.
20 Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, did indeed come to him, but to oppress him rather than to help him.
21 Though Ahaz plundered the LORD'S house and the houses of the king and the princes to make payment to the king of Assyria, it availed him nothing.
22 While he was already in distress, the same King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.
23 He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, saying, Since it was the gods of the kings of Aram who helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me also. However, they only caused further disaster to him and to all Israel.
24 Ahaz gathered up the utensils of God's house and broke them in pieces. He closed the doors of the LORD'S house and had altars made for himself in every corner of Jerusalem.
25 In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifice to other gods. Thus he angered the LORD, the God of his fathers.
26 The rest of his deeds and his activities, first and last, can be found written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27 Ahaz rested with his ancestors and was buried in Jerusalem--in the city, for they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.