1 All the people of Judah then took Uzziah, who was sixteen, and made him king in his father Amaziah's place.
2 It was he who rebuilt Eloth and brought it back under Judah after the king lay down with his fathers.
3 Uzziah was sixteen when he became king, and he ruled fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem.
4 He did what was right in the LORD's eyes, just as his father Amaziah had done.
5 He gave himself to seeking God during the lifetime of Zechariah, who instructed him in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.
6 He marched out and made war on the Philistines, tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod, and built cities near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines.
7 God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.
8 The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his name became known as far as the border of Egypt, because he had grown very powerful.
9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.
10 He also built towers in the wilderness and cut out many cisterns, for he had large herds in the Shephelah and on the plain. He had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile fields, because he was a lover of the land.
11 Uzziah had a fighting army ready to go out to battle in units, mustered and counted by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the command of Hananiah, one of the king's officers.
12 The total number of the heads of fathers' houses, strong warriors, was two thousand six hundred.
13 Under them was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred men trained for war, a powerful force to help the king against the enemy.
14 Uzziah equipped the whole army with shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and sling stones.
15 In Jerusalem he had devices designed by skilled men and set on the towers and corners for shooting arrows and large stones. His name spread far and wide, for he was helped wonderfully until he was strong.
16 But when he had grown strong, his heart became proud, to his ruin. He broke faith with the LORD his God by going into the LORD's temple to burn incense on the incense altar.
17 Azariah the priest went in after him, together with eighty other priests of the LORD, brave men.
18 They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, "Uzziah, burning incense to the LORD is not your place; it belongs to the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and the LORD God will not honor you for this."
19 Uzziah, censer in hand and ready to burn incense, grew angry. And while he was raging at the priests, leprosy appeared on his forehead right in front of the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the incense altar.
20 When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he was leprous on his forehead. They rushed him out of there, and he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had struck him.
21 King Uzziah remained leprous until the day he died. He lived in a separate house as a leper, cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
22 The rest of Uzziah's deeds, from beginning to end, were written down by Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz.
23 Uzziah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him near his fathers in a burial field belonging to the kings, for they said, "He is a leper." And his son Jotham became king after him.