Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Uzziah, also called Azariah, worshiping God, overcomes the Philistines, Arabs, and Ammonites; but becoming proud and wishing to burn incense in the temple, he is struck with leprosy by God, and therefore his son Jotham administers the kingdom.
Vulgate Text: 2 Paralipomenon 26:1-23
1. Then all the people of Judah made his son Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, king in place of his father Amaziah. 2. He built Elath and restored it to the dominion of Judah, after the king slept with his fathers. 3. Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. 4. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 5. 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 directed him in all things. 6. Then he went out and fought against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7. God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who dwelt in Gur-baal, and against the Ammonites. 8. The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even to the entrance of Egypt, because of his frequent victories. 9. Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the other points on that side of the wall, and fortified them. 10. He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock, both in the lowlands and in the vastness of the desert; he also had vineyards and vinedressers in the mountains and in Carmel, for he was a man devoted to agriculture. 11. Uzziah had an army of warriors who went out to battle under the direction of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the command of Hananiah, one of the king's commanders. 12. The total number of the heads of families of valiant men was two thousand six hundred. 13. Under their command was an entire army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred, who were fit for war and fought for the king against the adversaries. 14. Uzziah also prepared for them, that is, for the whole army, shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and slings for casting stones. 15. He made in Jerusalem engines of war of various kinds, designed by skilled men, to be placed on the towers and at the corners of the walls, to shoot arrows and hurl great stones; and his fame spread far abroad, because the Lord helped him and strengthened him. 16. But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he neglected the Lord his God; for he entered the temple of the Lord and wished to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17. Immediately Azariah the priest entered after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, all valiant men, 18. and they resisted the king and said: It is not your office, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but the office of the priests, that is, of the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated for this ministry; leave the sanctuary, do not show contempt, for this will not be reckoned to your glory by the Lord God. 19. Uzziah was enraged, and holding a censer in his hand to burn incense, he threatened the priests. And immediately leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests, in the house of the Lord, above the altar of incense. 20. When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw the leprosy on his forehead, and they quickly expelled him. He himself also hurried to go out, because he had immediately felt the plague of the Lord. 21. So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death, and he dwelt in a separate house, full of leprosy, because of which he had been cast out of the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son governed the king's house and judged the people of the land. 22. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, wrote Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet. 23. And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the field of the royal tombs, because he was a leper; and Jotham his son reigned in his place.
Verse 5: Zechariah
5. ZECHARIAH, WHO HAD UNDERSTANDING AND VISION. — This Zechariah the prophet was like a tutor of King Uzziah and taught him to worship God devoutly. But who was this Zechariah? Hear St. Jerome here in the Traditions: "Zechariah, the son of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who was born posthumously after his father's death and received his father's name, is called 'understanding and seeing': understanding because of the priesthood, seeing because of prophecy." So says Jerome. The Hebrews, however, and others read: who had understanding in the visions of God. If Zechariah was born after his father's death, he could at this time have been over thirty years old, having been born in the 36th year of King Joash's reign. This Zechariah seems to have had a daughter named Abijah, who married King Ahaz, and from her he begot King Hezekiah, which Jerome also affirms on that passage, and the chronology does not conflict. No prophetic writing of his survives, for the one who is read as the second-to-last of the minor prophets is easily three hundred years distant. So Salianus at the year of the world 3227, number 3, Cajetan, Dionysius, and others.
Verse 10: Towers in the Wilderness
10. TOWERS IN THE WILDERNESS — so are called farmhouses and country estates equipped with towers for guarding the crops, fruits, and fields; in which the produce of the fields is stored and livestock is stabled, and which elsewhere are called 'villages.' So Christ went about through 'towns and villages,' that is, through the farms and hamlets of country folk, preaching the kingdom of God.
Verse 16: When He Had Become Strong
16. WHEN HE HAD BECOME STRONG, HIS HEART WAS LIFTED UP TO HIS DESTRUCTION, AND HE NEGLECTED THE LORD HIS GOD. — St. Chrysostom, in Homily 3 On the Words of Isaiah, examining these words, notes that in them not only Uzziah's pride but also the cause of his pride is indicated. "When he had become strong," he says, or as he himself reads: "When he was powerful, his heart was lifted up" — to show that excessive power had engendered excessive pride. "He could not bear," he says, "(namely King Uzziah) the greatness of his rule; but just as from gluttony arises bloating, from bloating fever is born, then from fever usually death: so too here from the eminence of his achievements pride was born, and soon from pride was born the desire for things not befitting him." Just as his father Amaziah, from the conquest of Edom, took heart to provoke the king of Israel to war with haughty and foolish spirit, and was therefore defeated, captured, and plundered; so too his son Azariah (Uzziah), swelling from so many victories over enemies, presumed to arrogate to himself the priestly office and wished to burn incense to God; but immediately humbled by God, driven from kingdom and palace, he dragged out an unhappy life in leprosy until death.
Verse 18: It Is Not Your Office
18. IT IS NOT YOUR OFFICE, UZZIAH. — Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 4 On the Words of Isaiah: "See," he says, "the boldness; see the mind that knows not how to serve; see the tongue that reaches heaven; see the irrepressible freedom; see the body of a man and the mind of an Angel; see one who walks on earth yet dwells in heaven," etc.
Verse 19: Leprosy Broke Out on His Forehead
19. AND IMMEDIATELY LEPROSY BROKE OUT ON HIS FOREHEAD — for leprosy was the punishment for sacrilegious persons and for those who resisted and rebelled against the Pontiff and the priests, as Azariah (Uzziah) did here. Josephus adds, in book 9, chapter 11, two other prodigious plagues inflicted by God on Uzziah and Judea: "And behold," he says, "the earth was violently shaken there, and the temple split open above, and a ray of sunlight struck the king's face, which was immediately touched with leprosy. Another prodigy was added to this: in the same earthquake, before the city in the place called Eroge, half of the mountain facing westward was torn away and rolled for four stadia, until it finally came to rest against the eastern mountain, blocking the public road and crushing the royal gardens beneath its ruin."
A third plague is added by St. Jerome, Cyril, Origen, and Chrysostom on Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1, on those words: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord" — namely that God, on account of Uzziah's sin, to which some of the leading men had consented, deprived the Jews of His oracles, prophecies, and spirit until the death of Uzziah. See what was said there.
Finally, the Hebrews in Seder Olam think that Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the 27th year of his reign, when the earthquake also occurred, about which see Amos chapter 1, verse 1. But this cannot be said, for at that time Jotham, who governed the kingdom when his father Uzziah was struck with leprosy, had not yet been born. For Jotham was born in the 28th year of Uzziah; this is clear from the fact that when his father died in the 52nd year of his reign, Jotham was 25 years old, as is said in 4 Kings (2 Kings) 15:33. Therefore Salianus probably thinks Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the 49th year of his reign, when Achaz was born as a son to Jotham, and in the same year Menahem king of Israel died. Abulensis supports this, holding that Uzziah lived as a leper for four or five years. St. Jerome, however, in his commentary on 2 Chronicles 29, asserts that Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the year he died, which was the 52nd year of his reign. Uzziah sinned in a twofold way: first, because he dared to enter the Holy Place, which only priests were allowed to enter; second, because he burned incense as if he were a priest, though he was a layman, and threatened death to the Pontiff who opposed him, as Josephus says. Because he invaded the priesthood, he therefore lost his kingdom through leprosy. The first opinion, however (that he was struck with leprosy in the 27th year of his reign), is probable, as I showed in Amos 1:1; for the kingdom could have been administered by the nobles until Jotham was born and grew up.
Let kings learn here not to invade the rights of Pontiffs and priests, lest they be struck by God, as Uzziah was struck; on which matter Baronius abundantly supplies examples throughout in his Annals.
Verse 22: The Rest of the Acts of Uzziah
22. THE REST OF THE ACTS OF UZZIAH, ETC., WERE WRITTEN BY ISAIAH. — This history by Isaiah has perished through the injury of time. For in his prophecy he mentions Uzziah only twice: namely in chapter 6, verse 1, already cited, and in chapter 14, verse 28, where, restraining the Philistines from exulting over the death of their subjugator Uzziah, he says: "Rejoice not, all you Philistia, because the rod of him who struck you (Uzziah) is broken; for from the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk," namely Hezekiah, the great-grandson of Uzziah, who will torment you all the more severely, as the bite of a basilisk is more severe than that of a serpent.
Verse 23: Buried in the Field of the Royal Tombs
23. THEY BURIED HIM IN THE FIELD OF THE ROYAL TOMBS, BECAUSE HE WAS A LEPER. — For lepers, as in life, so also in death, are separated from the company of others; for leprosy infects and consumes even corpses. This is the fifth punishment of Uzziah for invading the priesthood: that he was buried outside the tombs of the kings, though near them, whether outside the city or within the city, that is, in Zion, the City of David.