View 2nd Chronicles 26 in the note window.
Uzziah reigns well, ver. 1 - 5.
Prospers in his wars, building, and the affairs of his kingdom,
ver. 6 - 15.
Invading the priest's office, is struck with a leprosy, ver. 16 - 20.
Is confined to his death, ver. 21 - 23.
10: Towers - To guard his cattle from the inroads which the
Arabians were accustomed to make: and to give notice of the
approach of any enemy.
16: Into Jerusalem - Into the holy place, where the altar of incense
stood, and into which none but the priests might enter, much less offer
incense.
18: Withstood - Heb. stood up against Uzziah, not by force, or
laying hands upon him to restrain him, for in the next verse you still
find the censer in his hand; but only by admonition and reproof, which
follows. Neither, &c. - Expect that God will punish thee, or put some
brand of infamy upon thee for this presumption. But this they express
modestly, because they considered that he to whom they spake, though
an offender, was their sovereign.
19: His forehead - So that he could not hide his shame: though it is
probable it was also in the rest of his body. From beside - By a stroke
from an invisible hand coming from the altar; that he might be assured
this was the effect of God's displeasure.
20: Thrust - Not by force, which needed not, for he voluntarily
hasted away, as it follows; but by vehement persuasions and denunciations
of God's farther judgments upon him, if he did not depart.
21: His death - God would have this leprosy to be incurable, as a
lasting monument of his anger against such presumptuous invaders of
the priest's office. Dwelt, &c. - As he was obliged to do by law, which
he durst not now resist, being under the hand of God, and under the fear
of worse plagues, if he did not so. For - He dwelt in a several house,
because he might not come into the temple or courts, nor consequently
into any publick assembly. So the punishment answered the sin, as face
does to face in a glass. He thrust himself into the temple of God, whether
the priests only had admission: and for that was thrust out of the very
courts of the temple, into which the meanest of, his subjects might enter.
He invaded the dignity of the priesthood, to which he had no right, and is
for that deprived of the royal dignity, to which he had an undoubted right.
