2 Chronicles 26:19

19 But Uzziah, censer in hand, was already in the middle of doing it and angrily rebuffed the priests. He lost his temper; angry words were exchanged - and then, even as they quarreled, a skin disease appeared on his forehead.

2 Chronicles 26:19 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 26:19

Then Uzziah was wroth
With the priests, and, as Josephus


FOOTNOTES:

F2 says, threatened to kill them:

and had a censer in his hand to burn incense;
ready to do it, and resolved upon it:

and while he was wroth with the priests;
and expressing his indignation, and do what he would do to them, if they continued to oppose him:

the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the
house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar;
which seems not only to describe the position of the priests, being beside the altar of incense, to keep the king from it, when the leprosy was seen by them in his forehead, but the quarter from whence the stroke invisibly came. Josephus F3 says, there was earthquake at the same time, and a mountain was rent.


F2 Antiqu. l. 9. c. 10. sect. 4.
F3 lbid.

2 Chronicles 26:19 In-Context

17 The priest Azariah, backed up by eighty brave priests of God, tried to prevent him.
18 They confronted Uzziah: "You must not, you cannot do this, Uzziah - only the Aaronite priests, especially consecrated for the work, are permitted to burn incense. Get out of God's Temple; you are unfaithful and a disgrace!"
19 But Uzziah, censer in hand, was already in the middle of doing it and angrily rebuffed the priests. He lost his temper; angry words were exchanged - and then, even as they quarreled, a skin disease appeared on his forehead.
20 As soon as they saw it, the chief priest Azariah and the other priests got him out of there as fast as they could. He hurried out - he knew that God then and there had given him the disease.
21 Uzziah had his skin disease for the rest of his life and had to live in quarantine; he was not permitted to set foot in The Temple of God. His son Jotham, who managed the royal palace, took over the government of the country.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.