Uzziah
King of Judah, also called Azariah, who reigned fifty-two years. Chronicles tells of his wars and building and of the leprosy that ended his public life. Isaiah’s vision in the temple is dated to the year he died.
Uzziah, whom Kings usually calls Azariah, became king at sixteen and reigned fifty-two years (2 Kings 15:1–2). Chronicles describes his wars against the Philistines, his towers and his army (2 Chronicles 26:6–15). It says that when he went into the temple to burn incense he was struck with leprosy, and that he lived apart until his death while his son Jotham governed (2 Chronicles 26:16–21). Kings records the leprosy without giving a cause (2 Kings 15:5).
Amos and Hosea prophesied in his reign (Amos 1:1) (Hosea 1:1), an earthquake in his days was long remembered (Zechariah 14:5), and Isaiah dates his vision to the year of his death (Isaiah 6:1). For that year see the Call of Isaiah. He appears in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:8–9).
In the timeline
- about 740 BC, estimated dateThe Call of Isaiah
In the year King Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple and is sent as a prophet to Judah. When Syria and Israel attack, he tells King Ahaz to trust God, gives the sign of Immanuel and speaks of a coming king from David’s line.