Uzziah עוזיהו

Uzziah (also called Azariah) became king at sixteen and reigned fifty-two years — longer than any king of Judah except Manasseh. Chronicles lists what he did: he built towers in Jerusalem and in the wilderness, hewed cisterns, kept large herds, loved husbandry, raised an army, and set on the towers and corners of the walls «engines» for shooting arrows and hurling stones. «And his name spread far, for he was marvellously helped, until he was strong» (2 Chronicles 26:15).

The end came from the same place as the strength: grown proud, he entered the Temple to burn incense on the incense altar — the work of priests. Azariah the priest with eighty others stood against him; while he raged, tzaraat broke out on his forehead, and they hurried him out. He lived as a leper in a separate house until his death, and his son Jotham governed the land — the second of the two coregencies that account for the nineteen surplus years in the count of Judah's kings. AM 3121–3173, approximate; academically 792–740 BCE.