Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, 2 Kings 15:2 / 2 Chronicles 26:1, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah, 2 Kings 14:21.
We are told that he was the one who rebuilt Elath, 2 Chronicles 26:2 / 1 Kings 9:26, and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors, 2 Kings 14:22.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This city belonged to the Edomites and was situated on the eastern branch of the Red Sea, thence called the Elanitic Gulf. It had probably suffered much in the late war and was now rebuilt by Uzziah, and brought entirely under the dominion of Judah.’
Uzziah, 1 Chronicles 3:12 / Isaiah 1:1 / Isaiah 6:1, also known as Azariah in 2 Kings, began to reign in the Southern Kingdom of Judah from 767 B.C. to 740 B.C. Jeroboam II of the northern kingdom reigned at the same time as Uzziah, 2 Kings 15:1.
Some commentators suggest that Azariah was his throne name, and Uzziah was his adopted name. We do know that the name Azariah means the Lord helps, and the name Uzziah means the Lord strengthens.
He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years and his mother’s name was Jekoliah and she was from Jerusalem, 2 Kings 15:2 / 2 Chronicles 26:3.
Back in 2 Kings 14:22, the writer tells us that Azariah rebuilt Elath, 2 Kings 15:2, which was Solomon’s port city on the shore of the Red Sea, 1 Kings 9:26. We also know that Azariah led Israel with a strong army, 2 Chronicles 26:6-15.
He did what was right in the eyes of God, and he sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God and as long as he sought God, God gave him success, 2 Chronicles 26:4-5.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘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 Elath and promoted commerce. Elath is the same as Ezion-Geber.’
He did what was right in God’s eyes, 2 Kings 15:3 / 2 Chronicles 26:4-5; however, he didn’t remove the high places, 2 Kings 15:4. These high places had become very important both socially and religiously for the Northern and Southern kingdoms.
They were places where sacrifices were made, and offerings were made to the false gods, 2 Kings 15:4. In effect, these high places took God’s people away from God, hence why both kingdoms fell into idolatry over and over again.
Yes, the temples of Baal were destroyed, but these high places remained. God struck Azariah with leprosy because he wasn’t a priest and he wasn’t authorised to burn incense in the temple, 2 Kings 15:5 / 2 Chronicles 26:16-23 / 1 Samuel 13:13.
2 Chronicles 26:6-15 gives us a little more detail. The military accomplishments of Uzziah were fearsome. He suppressed the Philistines, 2 Chronicles 26:6 / 2 Chronicles 21:16, Arabians, 2 Chronicles 26:7 / 2 Chronicles 20:1, Meunites, 2 Chronicles 26:7 / Judges 10:12, and the Ammonites, 2 Chronicles 26:8.
In an effort to secure the land of Judah, he built watchtowers both in Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 26:9, and in the areas from where invading armies might come, 2 Chronicles 26:10. The extent of his military campaigns secured territory as far as Israel’s border with Egypt, 2 Chronicles 26:10.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Refuges for the flocks and the herdsmen in the wild pasture country on the borders of the holy land, especially toward the south and southeast. Judaea depends largely on reservoirs for its water supply, in which the rainfall is stored. These are generally cut in the natural rock and covered at the top.’
Notice that Uzziah didn’t add much to the military strength of the nation by his conquests, 2 Chronicles 26:11-13. His army exceeds that of his father, Amaziah, by seven thousand five hundred men only, 2 Chronicles 25:5.
He provided shields, spears, coats of armour, bows, and slingstones for the whole army, 2 Chronicles 26:14. The slingstones were used in war by the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, and others. The Benjamites used them, Judges 20:16, and by the ten tribes, a century before Uzziah, 2 Kings 3:25.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following concerning the devices he invented, 2 Chronicles 26:15.
‘This is the very first imitation on record of any warlike engines for the attack or defence of besieged places, and this account is long prior to anything of the kind among either the Greeks or the Romans. The Jews alone were the inventors of such engines, and the invention took place in the reign of Uzziah, about eight hundred years before the Christian era. It is no wonder that, in consequence of this, his name spread far abroad, and struck terror into his enemies.’
Uzziah’s fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful, 2 Chronicles 26:15. Power appears to gone to Uzziah’s head and as a result he became unfaithful to God, 2 Chronicles 26:16 / 1 Chronicles 10:13.
It was this this same pride and unfaithfulness that would lead the entire nation into exile, 1 Chronicles 5:25 / 1 Chronicles 9:1 / 2 Chronicles 33:19 / 2 Chronicles 36:14.
Uzziah appears to have deliberately determined to invade the priest’s office, and so, repeating the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers 16:1-35. He has obviously become arrogant and full of himself because of all the victories he has won.
His arrogance led him to assume the authority of the Levitical priests and their work in the temple, 2 Chronicles 26:16. He stood against eighty priests who tried to stop him from burning the incense, 2 Chronicles 26:17-18, which was only allowed by the priests, 2 Chronicles 26:18 / Numbers 16:35 / Numbers 18:7.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘What Uzziah actually violated here was the divine instructions of God himself through Moses in the Pentateuch, Exodus 29:29. Saul lost his kingship for failing to respect those very restrictions.’
Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry and so, God struck Uzziah with leprosy, 2 Chronicles 26:19, because he wasn’t a priest and he wasn’t authorised to burn incense in the temple, 2 Chronicles 26:16-23 / 1 Samuel 13:13.
When Azariah, the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out, 2 Chronicles 26:20. We are told that Uzziah himself was eager to leave because the LORD had afflicted him, 2 Chronicles 26:20.
Notice that he lived in a separate house, 2 Kings 15:5 / 2 Chronicles 26:21. This was common practice for those who had leprosy, Leviticus 13:45-46. Because God struck him with leprosy, Jotham, his son, administered both his house and the nation in his later years, 2 Kings 15:5.
The other events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, 2 Chronicles 26:22. 2 Kings 15:6 tells us that they are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah.
Azariah rested with his ancestors and was buried near them in the City of David, 2 Kings 15:7. According to 2 Chronicles 26:23, we learn that Azariah wasn’t buried with his ancestors, but near them; this too was common practice for those who had leprosy, as they were classed as unclean. When Azariah died, Jotham became the king of Judah, 2 Kings 15:7 / 2 Chronicles 26:23.
Zechariah now becomes the king of Israel; however, his reign was short-lived, just six months, 2 Kings 15:8. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his predecessors had done; he didn’t turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, 2 Kings 15:9.
In a sense, this is where the Northern Kingdom of Israel was about to come to an end. After six months as king, Zechariah was assassinated by Shallum, 2 Kings 15:10.
The other events of Zechariah’s reign are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel, 2 Kings 15:11. So the word of God spoken to Jehu was fulfilled, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation, 2 Kings 15:12 / 2 Kings 10:30.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The most important thing about this man was the fact of his terminating the dynasty of Jehu as related in 2 Kings 15:12. This, of course, had been prophesied by the Lord in 2 Kings 10:30. His violent overthrow also fulfilled the prophecy given by Hosea in which God promised that ‘I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu’, Hosea 1:4.’
Shallum became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned in Samaria one month, 2 Kings 15:13. Menahem went from Tizrah to Samaria, 2 Kings 15:14.
Tirzah once served as the capital of the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Jeroboam I, 1 Kings 14:17. Menahem attacked Shallum in Samaria, assassinated him, and succeeded him as king, 2 Kings 15:14.
The other events of Shallum’s reign, and the conspiracy he led, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel, 2 Kings 15:15. After the assassination of Zechariah by Shallum, a conspiracy broke out, 2 Kings 15:15, and as a result of this conspiracy, the leadership in the Northern Kingdom began to decline.
Menahem, starting out from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in the city and its vicinity, because they refused to open their gates, and he sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women, 2 Kings 15:16.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Menahem is supposed to have been one of Zachariah’s generals. Hearing of the death of his master, when he was with the troops at Tirzah, he hastened to Samaria, slew the murderer, and had himself proclaimed in his stead. But, as the people of Tiphsah did not open their gates to him, he took the place by assault and, as the text tells us, practised the most cruel barbarities, even ripping up the women who were with child!’
Menahem reigned from 752 B.C. to 742 B.C., 2 Kings 15:17, and there’s no doubt that Menahem was a harsh military leader who assassinated Shallum. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and during his entire reign, he didn’t turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, 2 Kings 15:18.
During his reign, the Assyrians, under the leadership of Shalmaneser, 858 B.C. to 824 B.C. and Adadnirari, 805 B.C. to 782 B.C., were expanding the Assyrian Empire to the west and south.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
The two things of importance in Menahem’s reign are as follows.
1. His brutal atrocity against the pregnant women of Tiphsah.
2. His becoming a tributary to Tiglath-Pileser. In this latter event, there appeared before the gates of Israel the great Assyrian power that would soon destroy Northern Israel forever.’
Such savage cruelty was typical of those days of the Assyrian terror. It was expected of Hazael, 2 Kings 8:12, perpetrated against Israel by Ammon, Amos 1:13, and was to be part of Israel’s final tragedy, Hosea 14:1.
Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave him a thousand talents, that is, thirty-eight tons of silver, to gain his support and strengthen his own hold on the kingdom, 2 Kings 15:19. Pul is the Babylonian name for the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Compared with the tribute of Hezekiah soon afterwards, 2 Kings 18:14, this seems a large sum, but it is not beyond the resources of such a State as Samaria at the period. The tie which had bound Samaria to Assyria from the reign of Jehu to that of Jeroboam II had ceased to exist during the period of Assyrian depression. Menahem now renewed it, undertaking the duties of a tributary, and expecting the support which Assyria was accustomed to lend to her dependencies in their struggles with their neighbours. Hence, the reproaches of Hosea.’
Menahem knew that he couldn’t win a war against the Assyrians and so he made the rich in Israel pay heavy taxes in order to pay tribute to Assyria, 2 Kings 15:20 / 2 Kings 12:18 / 2 Kings 16:8. Fifty shekels, that is one and a quarter pounds of silver, 2 Kings 15:20. It’s no wonder that Pul withdrew and stayed in the land no longer, 2 Kings 15:20.
Menahem’s son, Pekahiah, reigned for two years in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, from 742 B.C. to 740 B.C. 2 Kings 15:23. He, too, did evil in the eyes of the LORD and he didn’t turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, 2 Kings 15:24.
It appears that the rich, who were having to pay the high taxes, 2 Kings 15:20, rebelled against Menahem. No one knows who Argob and Arieh are, 2 Kings 15:25; some people believe they are men, whilst others believe they were statues.
Pekah one of Menahem’s commanders helped in a rebellion against Pekahiah, he had fifty Gileadites in the conspiracy with him and murdered Pekahiah in the process, 2 Kings 15:25.
Pekah now becomes king, 2 Kings 15:25. The other events of Pekahiah’s reign, and all he did, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel, 2 Kings 15:26.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The low birth of Pekah is probably glanced at in Isaiah’s favourite designation of him as ‘Remaliah’s son’, Isaiah 7:4-5 / Isaiah 7:9 / Isaiah 8:6.’
Pekah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for twenty years, 2 Kings 15:27. He reigned from 740 B.C. to 732 B.C. He, too, did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and he didn’t turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, 2 Kings 15:28.
When we read Isaiah 7:1-9 and Isaiah 8:1-8, we read about the plot in which Pekah was ambitious to replace Ahaz, the king of Judah, with a puppet who was favourable to Pekah’s plans. The prophet Isaiah frustrated his efforts. The Assyrians took captives of conquered peoples as slaves back to their homeland.
Here we read that Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, assaulted the northern kingdom, defeated Pekah’s army, and then took the Israelites captive back to Assyria, 2 Kings 15:29 / 2 Kings 17:6.
Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor were places which belonged to Israel and were taken by Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, 2 Kings 15:29, when he was in league with Asa, king of Judah, 1 Kings 15:20. They were regained by Jeroboam II, and now they are taken from Israel once more by Tiglath-Pileser.
Pul and Tiglath-Pileser, kings of Assyria, carried away into captivity the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, all that belonged to Israel, on the other side of Jordan, 1 Chronicles 5:26.
These places were never restored to Israel. Because of Pekah’s defeat by the Assyrians, Hoshea conspired against him in order to bring Israel under the control of Assyria, 2 Kings 15:30.
Calmet, in his commentary, says the following concerning the chronology in these verses.
‘Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to 2 Kings 15:30. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to 2 Kings 17:1.’
The other events of Pekah’s reign, and all he did, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel, 2 Kings 15:31.
Jotham became king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He reigned together with Uzziah from 740 B.C. to 732 B.C., 1 Kings 15:32 / 2 Chronicles 27:1 / 2 Chronicles 1:7-9.
He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerusha, daughter of Zadok, 1 Kings 15:33 / 2 Chronicles 27:1.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘According to 2 Kings 15:33 and 2 Chronicles 27:1, Jotham reigned for only 16 years. Strangely enough, this first year of Hoshea is also called, not the fourth, but the twelfth of Ahaz, 2 Kings 17:1. The chronological confusion of the history, as it stands, is striking.’
He did what was right in God’s eyes, just as his father Uzziah had done, 1 Kings 15:34 / 2 Chronicles 27:2, but he didn’t remove the high places, 1 Kings 15:35. These high places had become very important both socially and religiously for the Northern and Southern kingdoms.
They were places where sacrifices were made, and offerings were made to the false gods. In effect, these high places took God’s people away from God, hence why both kingdoms fell into idolatry over and over again. Yes, the temples of Baal were destroyed, but these high places remained, 2 Kings 15:1-4.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following concerning the wall of Ophel, 2 Chronicles 27:3.
‘This wall was part of the old Jebusite city, a very important part of Jerusalem, also called ‘the City of David’. Jotham’s fortifying of this part of Jerusalem indicated that he feared an external attack, probably from Assyria and Samaria. This faithless trust which Judah at that time put in fortifications was rebuked by the prophets, Hosea 8:14 / Isaiah 2:15.’
He built towns in the hill country of Judah and forts and towers in the wooded areas, 2 Chronicles 27:4. Ammon had been subject to Uzziah, Jotham’s father, but they rebelled against Jotham, who put down their insurrection and exacted a heavy toll for three years, 2 Chronicles 27:5.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Ammonites, who had submitted to Uzziah, 2 Chronicles 26:8, revolted against Jotham. This revolt he firmly repressed; and, to punish it, he exacted a high rate of tribute for the three years following the termination of the war. The productiveness of the Ammonite country in grain, which is here indicated, has been remarked upon as extraordinary by modern travellers.’
Jotham became and remained strong, 2 Chronicles 27:6, because he did right in the eyes of the Lord. Sadly, his reign wasn’t very long because the people around him were corrupt.
The other events of Jotham’s reign, and what he did, 2 Chronicles 26:9, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah, 1 Kings 15:36. In 1 Kings 15:37, we find the words, ‘In those days the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah’.
This is the first intimation of the hostile feelings of the kings of Israel and Syria toward Judah, which led them to form an alliance and make joint preparations for war, 2 Chronicles 27:5. However, war wasn’t actually waged until the reign of Ahaz.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It was about this time that the Assyrian wars, so ruinous to the Jews, began, but it was in the following reigns that they arrived at their highest pitch of disaster to those unfaithful and unfortunate people. However much we may blame the Jews for their disobedience and obstinacy, we cannot help feeling for them under their severe afflictions. Grievously they have sinned, and grievously have they suffered for it.’
Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David, the city of his father. Ahaz, his son, succeeded him as king, 2 Chronicles 26:9 / 1 Kings 15:38.
It’s clear that the Northern Kingdom of Israel failed to humble themselves and failed to seek the Lord, and so, what we see in this chapter is a simple outline of the final destruction of the sinful kingdom of Israel, Amos 9:8.