Azariah the High Priest עזריהו הכהן
went out with eighty priests to face a king who had come in to burn incense
Chronicles marks them out: not "the priests said," but "Azariah the priest and with him eighty priests of the LORD, men of courage." The word about courage is not decoration here: they stood in the way of a king who had reigned fifty-two years and brought the country to its greatest strength in a century.
It was said plainly: it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, consecrated to burn incense; leave the sanctuary, for you have trespassed, and it will bring you no honour from the LORD God.
The king was enraged — with the censer in his hand. And at that moment tzaraat broke out on his forehead. The priests thrust him out, and he hurried out himself, "for the LORD had struck him." Until his death he lived in a separate house, cut off from the House of the LORD, and his son Jotham governed the land.
The whole scene is about a boundary. The king could do anything but one thing: enter where the priests serve. Eighty men went out to hold that line, and it held.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Divrei HaYamim II 26:17–18 — eighty priests, “men of courage,” against the king
- Divrei HaYamim II 26:19–21 — the tzaraat on the forehead and lifelong separation
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.