[222]
While Uzziah was in this state, and making preparation [for futurity],
he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and became insolent, and this on
account of that abundance which he had of things that will soon perish,
and despised that power which is of eternal duration (which consisted in
piety towards God, and in the observation of the laws); so he fell by occasion
of the good success of his affairs, and was carried headlong into those
sins of his father, which the splendor of that prosperity he enjoyed, and
the glorious actions he had done, led him into, while he was not able to
govern himself well about them. Accordingly, when a remarkable day was
come, and a general festival was to be celebrated, he put on the holy garment,
and went into the temple to offer incense to God upon the golden altar,
which he was prohibited to do by Azariah the high priest, who had fourscore
priests with him, and who told him that it was not lawful for him to offer
sacrifice, and that "none besides the posterity of Aaron were permitted
so to do." And when they cried out that he must go out of the temple,
and not transgress against God, he was wroth at them, and threatened to
kill them, unless they would hold their peace. In the mean time a great
earthquake shook the ground 1
and a rent was made in the temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone
through it, and fell upon the king's face, insomuch that the leprosy seized
upon him immediately. And before the city, at a place called Eroge, half
the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four
furlongs, and stood still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well
as the king's gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction. Now, as soon as
the priests saw that the king's face was infected with the leprosy, they
told him of the calamity he was under, and commanded that he should go
out of the city as a polluted person. Hereupon he was so confounded at
the sad distemper, and sensible that he was not at liberty to contradict,
that he did as he was commanded, and underwent this miserable and terrible
punishment for an intention beyond what befitted a man to have, and for
that impiety against God which was implied therein. So he abode out of
the city for some time, and lived a private life, while his son Jotham
took the government; after which he died with grief and anxiety at what
had happened to him, when he had lived sixty-eight years, and reigned of
them fifty-two; and was buried by himself in his own gardens.
2
1 This account of an earthquake at Jerusalem at the very same time when Uzziah usurped the priest's office, and went into the sanctuary to burn incense, and of the consequences of the earthquake, is entirely wanting in our other copies, though it be exceeding like to a prophecy of Jeremiah, now in Zechariah 14:4, 5; in which prophecy mention is made of "fleeing from that earthquake, as they fled from this earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah;" so that there seems to have been some considerable resemblance between these historical and prophetical earthquakes.
2 HOW ZACHARIAH SHALLUM, MENAHEM PEKAHIAH AND PEKAH TOOK THE GOVERNMENT OVER THE ISRAELITES ; AND HOW PUL AND TIGLATH-PILESER MADE AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE ISRAELITES. HOW JOTHAM, THE SON OF UZZIAH REIGNED OVER THE TRIBE OF JUDAH; AND WHAT THINGS NAHUM PROPHESIED AGAINST THE ASSYRIANS.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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