After the murder of Amaziah, his son Uzziah was chosen bj' the people to occupy the vacant throne, at the age of sixteen ; and for the greater part of his reign of Hfiy-two years he lived in the fear of (iod, and show- ed himself a wise, active, and pious ruler. He began his reign by a successfid expedition against his father's enemies, the Edomites, who had revolted from Judah in Jehoram's time, eighty years before, and penetrated as far as the head of the (iulf of Akaba, where he took the important place of Elath, forlirted it, and probably established it as a mart for foreign commerce, which Jehoshaphat had failed to do. This success is recorded in 2 Kings (xiv, 22), but from 2 Chron. (xxvi, 1, etc.) we learn much more. Uzziah waged other victorious wars in the South, especially against the jMehunim (q. v.), or people of Maan, and the Arabs of Gurbaal. A fortified town named Maan still exists in Arabia Pe- tnea, south of the Dead Sea. The situation of (iurbaal ((). v.) is imknown. (For conjectures more or less prob- able, see EwaUl, Gench. i, 321.) Such enemies would hardly maintain a long resistance after the defeat of so formidable a tribe as the Edomites. Towards the west, Uzziah fought with equal success against the Philis- tines, levelled to the ground the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod, and founded new fortified cities in the Philistine territory. Nor was he less vigorous in de- fensive than offensive operations. He strengthened the walls of Jerusalem at their weakest points, furnished them with formidable engines of war, and equipped an army of 307,500 men with the best inventions of mili- tary art. He was also a great patron of agriculture, dug wells, built towers in the wilderness for the pro- tection of the tlocks, and cultivated rich vineyards and arable land on his own account. He never deserted the worship of the true God, and was much influenced by Zechariah, a prophet who is only mentioned in connec- tion with him (2 Chron. xxvi, 5) ; for, as he probably died before Uzziah, he is thought not to have been the same as the Zechariah of Isa. viii, 2. So the southern kingdom was raised to a condition of prosperity which it had not known since the death of Solomon ; and as the power of Israel was gradually falling away in the latter period of Jehu's dynasty, that of Judah extended itself over the Ammonites and ^Moabites, and other tribes beyond Jordan, fnnn whom Uzziah exacted tribute. Sec
2 Chron. xxvi, 8, and Isa. xvi, 1-5, from which it would appear that the annual tribute of sheep (2 Kings iii,4) . was revived either during this reign or soon after.
The end of Uzziah was less prosperous than his l)c- ginning. Elated with his splendid career, he deter- mined to burn incense on the altar of <iod, but was op- posed by the high-priest Azariah and eighty others. (See Kxod, XXX, 7, 8; Numb, xvi, 40; xviii, 7.) The king was enraged at their resistance, and, as he pressed forward with his censer, was suddenly smitten with lep- rosy, a disease which, according to (ierlach (ad loc.'), is often brought out by violent excitement. In 2 Kings XV. 5 we are merely told that '• the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house;" but his invasion of the priest- ly office is not specified. This catastrophe compelled Uzziah to reside outside the city, so that the kingdom was administered till his death by his son Jotham as regent. L^zziah was buried "wuth his fathers," yet ap- parently not actually in the royal seijidchres (2 Chron. xxvi, 23). During his reign an earthquake (q.v.) oc- curred, which, though not mentioned in the historical books, was apparently very serious in its consequences, for it is alluded to as a chronological epoch by Amos (i, 1), and mentioned in Zech. xiv, 5 as a convulsion l^rom which the people "fled." Josephus (.4?;^ ix, 10, 4) connects it with Uzziah's sacrilegious attemijt to of- fer incense, and this is likely, as it agrees with other chronological data. See A.^ios.
The first six chapters of Isaiah's prophecies belong to this reign, and we are told (2 Chron. xxvi, 22) that a full account of it was written by that prophet. Some notices of the state of Judah at this time may also be obtained from the contemporary prophets Hosea and Amos, though both of these labored more particularly in Israel. We gather from their writings (Hos. iv, 15; vi, 11; Amos vi, 1), as well as from the early chapters of Isaiah, that though the condition of the southern kingdom was far superior, morally and religiously, to that of the northern, yet that it was by no means free from the vices which are apt to accompany wealth and l)rosperity. At the same time, Hosea conceives bright hopes of the blessings which were to arise from it ; and though doubtless these hopes pointed to something far higher than the brilliancy of Uzziah's administration, and though the return of the Israelites to "David their king" can only be adequately exiJained of Christ's king- dom, j-et the prophet, in contemplating the condition of Judah at this time, was plainly cheered by the th<iught that there God was really honored, and his worship vis- ibly maintained, and that therefore with it was bound up every hope that his promises to his people would at last be fulfilled (Hos. i, 7; iii, 3). It is to be observed, with reference to the general character of Uzziah's reign, that the writer of the second book of Chronicles distinctly states that his lawless attempt to burn incense was the only exception to the excellence of his admin- istration (2 Chron. xxvii, 2). — Smith. See Judah, Kingdom op.