¹⁴And Uzziah prepared for them, even for all the host, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and stones for slinging.
14. stones for slinging] Such stones needed to be carefully chosen, for they had to be smooth and of a suitable size, compare 1 Samuel xvii. 40. Bows and slings appear to have been favourite weapons in Benjamin, compare 1 Chronicles xii. 2; Judges xx. 16.
¹⁵And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the battlements[¹], to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.
[¹] Or, corner towers.
15. engines] Doubtless contrivances similar to the Roman catapulta and balista. It is questionable whether such engines of war were really in use as early as the time of Uzziah, at least among the Israelites (see Smith, Jerusalem, ii. 121, 122; and the Encyclopedia Biblia s.v. siege, especially col. 4510). The next reference to similar instruments of war is in 1 Maccabees vi. 51, 52.
helped] compare verse 7.
16–20 (not in Kings).
Uzziah’s Presumption.
16–20. Uzziah died from leprosy, as is related in verses 21–23 (= 2 Kings xv. 5–7). That terrible disease was always regarded as a manifestation of Divine anger against the sufferer (compare Numbers xii. 9 ff.; 2 Kings v. 27), but no special cause is assigned in Kings why the disaster befell Uzziah. In the present verses an adequate reason is brought forward—Uzziah, blinded by the pride of his success, infringed the privileges of the priesthood and was guilty of sacrilege. The motive for some such tale is so strong and the actual sin alleged so akin to the Chronicler’s prejudices that it may well be that the tale originated with him or his immediate circle. Yet it is possible that there may be behind the present form of the tale a valid tradition of a dispute at this period between the hierarchy and the authority of the king.
¹⁶But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up so that he did corruptly[¹], and he trespassed against the Lord his God; for he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
[¹] Or, to his destruction.