Synopsis of the Chapter
Uzziah, also called Azariah, worshiping God, overcomes the Philistines, Arabs, and Ammonites; but becoming proud and wishing to burn incense in the temple, he is struck with leprosy by God, and therefore his son Jotham administers the kingdom.
Verse 5: Zechariah ¶
5. ZECHARIAH, WHO HAD UNDERSTANDING AND VISION. — This Zechariah the prophet was like a tutor of King Uzziah and taught him to worship God devoutly. But who was this Zechariah? Hear St. Jerome here in the Traditions: "Zechariah, the son of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who was born posthumously after his father's death and received his father's name, is called 'understanding and seeing': understanding because of the priesthood, seeing because of prophecy." So says Jerome. The Hebrews, however, and others read: who had understanding in the visions of God. If Zechariah was born after his father's death, he could at this time have been over thirty years old, having been born in the 36th year of King Joash's reign. This Zechariah seems to have had a daughter named Abijah, who married King Ahaz, and from her he begot King Hezekiah, which Jerome also affirms on that passage, and the chronology does not conflict. No prophetic writing of his survives, for the one who is read as the second-to-last of the minor prophets is easily three hundred years distant. So Salianus at the year of the world 3227, number 3, Cajetan, Dionysius, and others.
Verse 10: Towers in the Wilderness ¶
10. TOWERS IN THE WILDERNESS — so are called farmhouses and country estates equipped with towers for guarding the crops, fruits, and fields; in which the produce of the fields is stored and livestock is stabled, and which elsewhere are called 'villages.' So Christ went about through 'towns and villages,' that is, through the farms and hamlets of country folk, preaching the kingdom of God.
Verse 16: When He Had Become Strong ¶
16. WHEN HE HAD BECOME STRONG, HIS HEART WAS LIFTED UP TO HIS DESTRUCTION, AND HE NEGLECTED THE LORD HIS GOD. — St. Chrysostom, in Homily 3 On the Words of Isaiah, examining these words, notes that in them not only Uzziah's pride but also the cause of his pride is indicated. "When he had become strong," he says, or as he himself reads: "When he was powerful, his heart was lifted up" — to show that excessive power had engendered excessive pride. "He could not bear," he says, "(namely King Uzziah) the greatness of his rule; but just as from gluttony arises bloating, from bloating fever is born, then from fever usually death: so too here from the eminence of his achievements pride was born, and soon from pride was born the desire for things not befitting him." Just as his father Amaziah, from the conquest of Edom, took heart to provoke the king of Israel to war with haughty and foolish spirit, and was therefore defeated, captured, and plundered; so too his son Azariah (Uzziah), swelling from so many victories over enemies, presumed to arrogate to himself the priestly office and wished to burn incense to God; but immediately humbled by God, driven from kingdom and palace, he dragged out an unhappy life in leprosy until death.
Verse 18: It Is Not Your Office ¶
18. IT IS NOT YOUR OFFICE, UZZIAH. — Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 4 On the Words of Isaiah: "See," he says, "the boldness; see the mind that knows not how to serve; see the tongue that reaches heaven; see the irrepressible freedom; see the body of a man and the mind of an Angel; see one who walks on earth yet dwells in heaven," etc.
Verse 19: Leprosy Broke Out on His Forehead ¶
19. AND IMMEDIATELY LEPROSY BROKE OUT ON HIS FOREHEAD — for leprosy was the punishment for sacrilegious persons and for those who resisted and rebelled against the Pontiff and the priests, as Azariah (Uzziah) did here. Josephus adds, in book 9, chapter 11, two other prodigious plagues inflicted by God on Uzziah and Judea: "And behold," he says, "the earth was violently shaken there, and the temple split open above, and a ray of sunlight struck the king's face, which was immediately touched with leprosy. Another prodigy was added to this: in the same earthquake, before the city in the place called Eroge, half of the mountain facing westward was torn away and rolled for four stadia, until it finally came to rest against the eastern mountain, blocking the public road and crushing the royal gardens beneath its ruin."
A third plague is added by St. Jerome, Cyril, Origen, and Chrysostom on Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1, on those words: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord" — namely that God, on account of Uzziah's sin, to which some of the leading men had consented, deprived the Jews of His oracles, prophecies, and spirit until the death of Uzziah. See what was said there.
Finally, the Hebrews in Seder Olam think that Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the 27th year of his reign, when the earthquake also occurred, about which see Amos chapter 1, verse 1. But this cannot be said, for at that time Jotham, who governed the kingdom when his father Uzziah was struck with leprosy, had not yet been born. For Jotham was born in the 28th year of Uzziah; this is clear from the fact that when his father died in the 52nd year of his reign, Jotham was 25 years old, as is said in 4 Kings (2 Kings) 15:33. Therefore Salianus probably thinks Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the 49th year of his reign, when Achaz was born as a son to Jotham, and in the same year Menahem king of Israel died. Abulensis supports this, holding that Uzziah lived as a leper for four or five years. St. Jerome, however, in his commentary on 2 Chronicles 29, asserts that Uzziah was struck with leprosy in the year he died, which was the 52nd year of his reign. Uzziah sinned in a twofold way: first, because he dared to enter the Holy Place, which only priests were allowed to enter; second, because he burned incense as if he were a priest, though he was a layman, and threatened death to the Pontiff who opposed him, as Josephus says. Because he invaded the priesthood, he therefore lost his kingdom through leprosy. The first opinion, however (that he was struck with leprosy in the 27th year of his reign), is probable, as I showed in Amos 1:1; for the kingdom could have been administered by the nobles until Jotham was born and grew up.
Let kings learn here not to invade the rights of Pontiffs and priests, lest they be struck by God, as Uzziah was struck; on which matter Baronius abundantly supplies examples throughout in his Annals.
Verse 22: The Rest of the Acts of Uzziah ¶
22. THE REST OF THE ACTS OF UZZIAH, ETC., WERE WRITTEN BY ISAIAH. — This history by Isaiah has perished through the injury of time. For in his prophecy he mentions Uzziah only twice: namely in chapter 6, verse 1, already cited, and in chapter 14, verse 28, where, restraining the Philistines from exulting over the death of their subjugator Uzziah, he says: "Rejoice not, all you Philistia, because the rod of him who struck you (Uzziah) is broken; for from the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk," namely Hezekiah, the great-grandson of Uzziah, who will torment you all the more severely, as the bite of a basilisk is more severe than that of a serpent.
Verse 23: Buried in the Field of the Royal Tombs ¶
23. THEY BURIED HIM IN THE FIELD OF THE ROYAL TOMBS, BECAUSE HE WAS A LEPER. — For lepers, as in life, so also in death, are separated from the company of others; for leprosy infects and consumes even corpses. This is the fifth punishment of Uzziah for invading the priesthood: that he was buried outside the tombs of the kings, though near them, whether outside the city or within the city, that is, in Zion, the City of David.