Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 26. Synopsis of the chapter
Ozias, or Azarias, worshipping God, overcomes the Philistines, Arabians, and Ammonites; whence, growing proud and wishing to burn incense in the temple, he is struck with leprosy by God, and therefore his son Joatham administers the kingdom.
1. And all the people of Juda made Ozias his son, sixteen years old, king in the room of Amasias his father.
2. He built Ailath, and restored it to the dominion of Juda, after the king slept with his fathers.
3. Ozias was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Jechelia of Jerusalem.
4. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Amasias his father had done.
5. And he sought the Lord in the days of Zacharias, who understood and saw God: and as long as he sought the Lord, he directed him in all things.
6. Moreover he went out and fought against the Philistines, and threw down the wall of Geth, and the wall of Jabnia, and the wall of Azotus: and he built towns in Azotus, and among the Philistines.
7. And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and against the Ammonites.
8. And the Ammonites gave presents to Ozias; and his name was spread abroad even to the entrance of Egypt, for his frequent victories.
9. And Ozias built towers in Jerusalem at the gate of the corner, and at the gate of the valley, and the rest in the same side of the wall, and fortified them.
10. He built also towers in the desert, and digged many cisterns, because he had much cattle, both in the plains and in the wilderness: he had also vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he was a man given to husbandry.
11. And the army of his fighting men that went out to battle was under the hand of Jehiel the scribe, and of Maasias the teacher, and under the hand of Hananias, who was one of the king’s captains,
12. and all the number of the princes by families, of valiant men, was two thousand six hundred.
13. And under them the whole army, of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred: who were fit for war and fought for the king against his enemies.
14. And Ozias prepared for them, that is, for all the army, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and slings to cast stones.
15. And he made in Jerusalem divers engines, which he placed in the towers, and in the corners of the walls, to shoot arrows, and great stones: and his name went forth far, because the Lord helped him, and had strengthened him.
16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he neglected the Lord his God: and going into the temple of the Lord, he went to burn incense upon the altar of incense.
17. And immediately Azarias the priest going in after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, most valiant men,
18. withstood the king, and said: It belongeth not to thy office, Ozias, to burn incense to the Lord, but to the priests, that is, to the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated for this ministry; go out of the sanctuary, do not despise: because this shall not be reputed to thee for glory by the Lord God.
19. And Ozias was angry, and holding in his hand the censer to burn incense, threatened the priests. And presently there arose a leprosy in his forehead before the priests, in the house of the Lord, at the altar of incense.
20. And when Azarias the high priest and all the other priests looked on him, they saw the leprosy in his forehead, and they hastily thrust him out. Yea, and himself being frightened, made haste to go out, because he felt presently the stroke of the Lord.
21. So king Ozias was a leper unto the day of his death, and he dwelt in a house apart, full of leprosy, for which he had been cast out of the house of the Lord. And Joatham his son governed the king’s house, and judged the people of the land.
22. Now the rest of the acts of Ozias first and last, were written by Isaias the son of Amos the prophet.
23. And Ozias slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the field of the royal sepulchres, because he was a leper: and Joatham his son reigned in his stead.
Verse 5. Of Zacharias the seer and understanding.—This Zacharias the prophet was as it were the tutor of king Ozias, and taught him to worship God religiously. But who was this Zacharias? Hear St. Jerome here in the Traditions: “Zacharias, the son of Zacharias the son of Joiada, who, born a posthumous child after the death of his father, received his father’s name, was called understanding and seeing: understanding on account of the priesthood, seeing on account of prophecy.” So he. The Hebrews and Greeks however read: understanding in the visions of God. If, then, Zacharias was born after the death of his father, he could at this time be over thirty years of age, being born namely in the 36th year of Joas. This Zacharias seems to have had a daughter by name Abia, who married king Achaz, who by her begot king Ezechias, which Jerome also affirms in that place, nor does age oppose. Moreover no prophetic writing of his is extant: for he who is read as the last but one among the minor prophets is distant from him easily three hundred years. So Salianus in the year of the world 3227, no. 3, Cajetan, Dionysius, and others.
Verse 10. And he built towers in the desert,—so are called country houses and farms, furnished with towers for guarding crops and fruits and fields: in which the fruits of the fields are stored, and cattle stabled, which elsewhere are called “forts.” So Christ went about through the villages and “forts,” that is, through the farms and villages of country folk, preaching the kingdom of God.
Verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he neglected the Lord his God.—Weighing these words, St. Chrysostom, homily 3 On the Words of Isaias, notes that in them not only the pride of Ozias but also the cause of the pride is indicated. “When he was strong,” he says, or “when he was powerful, his heart was lifted up”; that it might be shown that excessive power begot excessive pride. See a mind that knows not how to serve; see a tongue touching the heavens; see a liberty not to be restrained; see the body of a man and the mind of an Angel; see one walking on the ground and dwelling in heaven, etc.
Verse 19. And presently there arose a leprosy in his forehead;—for leprosy was the punishment of the sacrilegious, and of those who resisted and rebelled against the high priest and priests, as this Azarias did.
Josephus, book IX, chapter XI, adds two other prodigious plagues of God inflicted on Ozias and Juda: “And behold,” he says, “there the earth was violently shaken, and the temple being cleft above, a ray of the sun struck the king’s face, which was at once touched with leprosy: to this was added another prodigy, that by the same earthquake, before the city in the place called Eroge, half of a mountain sloping to the west was torn away, rolled for four stadia, and at length stopped against the opposing eastern mountain, obstructing the public way, and burying the royal gardens in ruin.”
A third plague St. Jerome, Cyril, Origen, and Chrysostom add on Isaias VI, 1, at those words: “In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord”; namely that God, on account of the sin of Ozias, to which some of the chief men had consented, deprived the Jews of his oracles, prophecies, and spirit, until the death of Ozias. See what I said there.
Finally, the Hebrews in Seder Olam think that Ozias was struck with leprosy in the 27th year of his reign, in which also happened the earthquake of which Amos, chapter I, verse 1. But this cannot be said; for then Joatham was not yet born, who, his father Ozias being struck with leprosy, governed the kingdom. For Joatham was born in the 28th year of Ozias; this is clear from the fact that, his father dying in the 52nd year of his reign, Joatham was 29 years old, as is read in 4 Kings XV, 33. Therefore Salianus probably thinks that Ozias was struck with leprosy in the 49th year of his reign, in which Achaz the son of Joatham was born, and in the same year 49 “He could not bear,” he says, (namely king Ozias) the greatness of his sovereignty; but as from gluttony arises swelling, from swelling is begotten fever, and then from fever for the most part death: so here also from the eminence of his deeds pride was born, and soon from pride was born a longing for things not befitting him.” As therefore Amasias his father, after the conquest of Idumea, assumed insolent and foolish spirits, provoking to war the king of Israel, and was therefore vanquished, taken, and despoiled; so also Azarias his son, swelling from the victories over so many enemies, presumed to arrogate to himself the priestly office, and wished to burn incense to God; but being straightway humbled by God, and driven from kingdom and palace, on account of his unhappy leprosy he drew his breath until death.
Verse 18. It belongeth not to thy office, Ozias.—Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 4 On the Words of Isaias: “See, Manahem king of Israel died. Abulensis favours this, who thinks that Ozias lived a leper four or five years. Moreover St. Jerome on 2 Paralipomenon XXIX asserts that Ozias was struck with leprosy in the very year in which he died, which was the 52nd of his reign. Ozias sinned in two ways: first, that he dared to enter the Sanctuary, into which only priests were allowed to enter; second, that he burned incense as a priest, though a layman, and threatened with death the high priest who withstood him, as Josephus says; because therefore he invaded the priesthood, he lost his kingdom by leprosy: yet the first opinion (that he was struck with leprosy in the 27th year of his reign) is probable, as I showed on Amos I, 1; for the kingdom could have been administered by the nobles until Joatham should be born and grow up.
Let kings learn here not to invade the rights of the Pontiffs and priests of the kingdom, lest they be struck by God, as Ozias was struck: on which matter Baronius in his Annals supplies sad examples here and there.
Verse 22. Now the rest of the acts of Ozias, etc., Isaias wrote.—This history of Isaias has perished through the injury of time. For in his prophecy he mentions Ozias only twice, namely chapter VI, 1, already cited, and chapter XIV, 28, where, restraining the Philistines exulting at the death of Ozias their conqueror: “Rejoice not,” he says, “whole Philistia, that the rod of him that struck thee (Ozias) is broken; for out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk,” namely Ezechias, the great-grandson of Ozias, who will afflict you the more sharply as the bite of a basilisk is more sharply felt than that of a serpent.
Verse 23. They buried him in the field of the royal sepulchres, because he was a leper.—For lepers, as in life so in death, are separated from the company of the rest: for leprosy infects and consumes even corpses. This is the fifth punishment of Ozias invading the priesthood, that he was buried outside the sepulchres of the kings, yet near them, either outside the city or in the city, namely in Sion the city of David.