In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign.
This verse dates a new reign in Judah by the years of Israel's king Jeroboam. Two questions meet the reader at once. Why is this king called Uzziah almost everywhere else? And why does such a short notice cover one of the longest reigns in Judah's history?
The same man appears as Azariah here and as Uzziah in Chronicles and the prophets. Commentators explain the double name in more than one way. One writer also notes who put him on the throne:
He is called Azariah (helped by Jehovah) elsewhere. The two names mean so nearly the same thing that either one could be used for him. He seems to have come to the throne, not by ordinary succession, but by the direct choice of the people. The Syrians had destroyed the princes near the end of his grandfather Joash's reign, which left the people a free hand... Their choice of Azariah was a good one, as what followed proved.
Commentators differ here. Another view keeps the two names distinct in meaning. It links the change of name to what the king did later, when he went into the temple to burn incense:
Two explanations are usually given: a copying error that confused similar letters, or that he bore two names. Neither one satisfies. The two names do not mean quite the same thing either: Azariah is "Jehovah helps," Uzziah is "My strength is Jehovah." May it not be that Azariah was his real name? And that after his daring intrusion into the sanctuary, when he was struck with lifelong leprosy, his name was changed to the related Uzziah — "My strength is Jehovah" — to mark that the "help" he had received depended on his relation to the LORD?
His mother's name carried a hope, and his early years answered it:
His was the longest continuous reign of any of the kings of Judah. His mother's name, Jah will enable, might show that she had believing hopes for her son, through the help of God. And she was not disappointed. Scripture says he "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done" — that is, during the earlier part of his reign.
The rest of the chapter runs through Israel's kings one after another:
Eight kings are mentioned in this chapter. Of five it is said they did evil in the sight of the Lord. One was a leper; four were murdered; one committed unspeakable cruelties.
That contrast between the two kingdoms carried a message:
Azariah (Uzziah) reigned for more than half a century. In that time he saw five of Israel's kings die, three of them murdered. There was also a gap of anarchy lasting at least eleven years. This marked contrast is probably what the prophet meant when he wrote, "Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God, and is faithful to the Holy One." This does not mean that all Judah's ways pleased the Lord. It means that, unlike Israel, they still upheld the truth of the LORD as a nation, as given in the law and pictured in the temple's worship and service.
Kings tells us that this king became a leper, but never says why. The silence has a purpose:
Like the idolatry of Amaziah, the sin of Uzziah, reported in 2 Chronicles 26, is passed over in silence. The reason is clear. The point is to bring out the godliness of the kings of Judah. The account does not weaken it by reporting their faults and inconsistencies. It sets that godliness against the idolatry of the kings of Israel, which cried to the Lord for vengeance.
The fuller record in Chronicles supplies the cause:
God blessed Uzziah at the start for his faithfulness. But the enormous success of his career puffed him up. He thought he could take the high priest's place and offer incense on the golden altar himself... His sense of his own dignity and great importance as king led him, the civil ruler, to seize religious authority.
Prophets were at work in Judah through these years, and his success came with a condition:
Isaiah was then prophet in Judah. Hosea, Amos and Zechariah were also prophets during his reign... Then follows the statement, "as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper." And this is still true of all God's people.
- Helped. His name Azariah means "Jehovah helps." The people chose him for the throne, outside the ordinary line of succession.
- Strengthened. His other name, Uzziah, means "My strength is Jehovah." He reigned longer than any other king of Judah, and prospered as long as he sought the LORD.
- Contrasted. He held Jerusalem for over fifty years. In the same years the northern kingdom burned through king after king — five evil, four murdered.
- Puffed up. The help he received made him strong. The strength made him proud. He claimed the priest's place at the altar, and leprosy struck him.
- Covered. Kings records the leprosy but not the sin behind it. The focus stays on Judah's faithfulness against Israel's idolatry.
He was sixteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
Three facts open this reign: the king's age, how long he ruled, and his mother's name. Behind them stand the longest reign in Judah, a king known by two names, and a story Kings leaves half-told.
This king appears elsewhere under a second name. One writer weighs the usual explanations and offers a better one:
The usual explanations do not satisfy. Some say a copyist confused similar letters. Others say he simply bore two names. And the two names do not mean quite the same thing. Azariah means "Jehovah helps." Uzziah means "My strength is Jehovah." Could it be that Azariah was his real name? Then came his bold intrusion into the sanctuary (2 Chron. 26:16-20), and leprosy struck him for life. At that point his name may have been changed to the related Uzziah — "My strength is Jehovah" — to mark that the "help" he had received had depended on his relation to the LORD. One fact seems to confirm this. Although 2 Chronicles always calls this king Uzziah, the Hebrew word for "help," which forms the first part of the name Azariah, comes back with marked emphasis in the account of the divine help given in his campaigns (2 Chron. 26:7, 13, 15).
He came to the throne as a boy, and the job was heavier than his years. Two things carried him: the fear of God, and God's own help.
Uzziah was one of the descendants of David who reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. He was crowned king when he was only sixteen. The post carried heavy responsibility, and he was very young for it. Yet he filled it well, because the fear of God was before his eyes. The history tells us that "God helped him." God helped him in such a marked way that we read a second time how "he was marvellously helped, till he was strong" (2 Chron. 26:7, 15).
No other king of Judah held the throne this long without a break. His mother's name is worth a second look too:
His was the longest unbroken reign of any king of Judah. Manasseh ruled fifty-five years, but the king of Babylon removed him and carried him off captive, so that reign was broken. His mother's name, "Jah will enable," may show that she had godly hopes for her son, by the help of God. She was not disappointed. Scripture says he "did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did" — that is, during the earlier part of his reign.
Kings names the mother of each king. Where she came from often matched how her son ruled:
Notice here, in the record of Kings, the part mothers play in how their children turn out. When these mothers come from Judah and Jerusalem, it is rare to see their sons follow the worship of false gods… On the other hand, mothers or wives who served false gods had a harmful influence on the kings… This observation should make Christian mothers realize their responsibility, and should stir them to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord.
Later in this chapter the same king becomes a leper and lives shut away. Kings does not say why. The silence has a reason:
The sin of Uzziah, reported in 2 Chronicles 26, is passed over in silence. We have said above that the reason is clear. The point is to bring out the godliness of the kings of Judah. The account does not weaken it by listing their faults and inconsistencies. It sets that godliness against the idolatry of the kings of Israel, which cried to the Lord for vengeance. Here we read only this: "And Jehovah struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house." Kings never gives the cause of his judgment.
The collapse came at the end of those fifty-two years, not at the start:
Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He sought God, and God made him prosper. But in his old age his heart was lifted up, and that ruined him. In his proud presumption he sinned against the Lord God. He died a leper, in his sixty-ninth year.
- Helped — Azariah means "Jehovah helps." Twice the record says God helped him, until he was strong.
- Young — Sixteen is young for a throne. The fear of God, not his own ability, made the start a good one.
- Home — Jecoliah means "Jah will enable." In Kings, mothers from Jerusalem rarely have sons who chase false gods.
- Long — Fifty-two years, the longest unbroken reign in Judah, and all of it rested on help from God.
- Strong — The help ran until he was strong; then pride entered, and the same man died a leper. Strength, not weakness, was the danger.