UZZIAH (rPly, sometimes rpm might of ye hovah ; Sept. 'Otias), otherwise called AZARIAH [as Gesenius thinks by an crror of the transcriber, the resemblance between 11'112 and being sufficient to mislead], a king of Judah, who began to reign B. c. 809, at the age of sixteen, and reigned fifty-three years, being, with the sole exception of Manasseh's, the longest reign in the Hebrew annals. Uzziah was but five years old when his father was slain. He was sixteen before he was formally called to the throne : and it is disputed by chronologers, whether to count the fifty-two years of his reign from the beginning or from the end of the eleven intervening years. In the first half of his reign Uzziah behaved well, and was mindful of his true place as viceroy of the Divine King. He accordingly prospered in all his under takings. His arms were successful against the Philistines, the Arabians, and the Ammonites. He restored and fortified the walls of Jerusalem, and planted on them engines for discharging arrows and great stones ; he organised the militaiy force of the nation into a kind of militia, composed of 307,5oo men, under the command of 26o0 chiefs, and divided into bands liable to be called out in rotation ; for these he provided vast stores of all kinds of weapons and armour,—spears, sluelds, helmets, breastplates, bows, and slings.
Nor were the arts of peace neglected by him: he loved and fostered agriculture ; and he also dug wells, and constructed towers in the desert, for the use of the flocks. At length, when he had con solidated and extended his power, and developed the internal resources of his country, Uzziah fell. His prosperity engendered the pride which became his ruin. In the twenty-fourth year of his reign, incited probably by the example of the neighbour ing kings, who united the regal and pontifical functions, Uzziah, unmindful of the fate of Dathan and Abiram, dared to attempt the exercise of one of the principal functions of the priests, by entering the holy place to burn incense at the golden altar. But, in the very act, he was smitten with leprosy, and was thrust forth by the priests. He continued a leper all the rest of his life, and lived apart as such, the public functions of the government being administered by his son Jotham, as soon as he be came of sufficient age (2 Kings xv. 27, ; 2 Chron. xxvi.)—J. K.