1Jotham reigning well prospereth. 3His buildings. 5He subdueth the Ammonites. 7His acts, reign, and death: Ahaz succeedeth him.
1JOTHAM wasa1twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.
a 2 Kings 15:33.
1 Hebr. a son of five and twenty years.
2And he 2did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not 3into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet 4corruptly.
2 Namely, in maintaining the pure worship of God. Compare 2 Chron. 26:4, and see the annotation.
3 Namely, (according to the opinion of some) to attend there the service of God in public with the rest of God’s people; which may thus be understood that he omitted it not through contempt of the ordinance, but through human frailty, because his father was smitten there with leprosy. Some perceive that this was spoken in praise of him, namely, that he entered not into the temple of the Lord to burn incense, as his father had done. See 2 Chron. 26:16.
4 Namely, by idolatry, in offering and burning incense on the high places, as is declared 2 Kings 15:35.
3He 5built 6the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall 7of Ophel he built much.
5 That is, renewed, repaired, fortified and mended. Compare 2 Chron. 11:5, and the annotation.
6 See 2 Kings 15 on verse 35.
7 Understand a part of the walls of Jerusalem, called as such, because it stood on a hill or high place. See 2 Chron. 33:14; Neh. 3:26; 11:21.
4Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built 8castles and towers.
8 Compare 2 Chron. 17 on verse 12.
5¶He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred 9talents of silver, and ten thousand 10measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.
9 See 1 Kings 16 on verse 24.
10 See of this measure Lev. 27 on verse 16, where it is called a homer. 1 Kings 4 on verse 22, where it is called a measure, as here.
6So Jotham became mighty, because he 11prepared his 12ways before the LORD his God.
11 See 2 Chron. 19 on verse 3.
12 That is, resolutions, purposes, words, actions, course of life. See Gen. 6 on verse 12; 1 Kings 2 on verse 4. Also here in the following verse 7.
7¶Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his 13wars, and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
13 Namely, which the king of Syria and the king of Israel made against him.
8He 14was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
14 Hebr. a son of five and twenty years.
9¶And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the 15city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
15 See 1 Kings 2 on verse 10.