Azariah

Azariah - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Whom Jehovah helps. (1.) Son of Ethan, of the tribe of Judah (1 Chr. 2:8).

(2.) Son of Ahimaaz, who succeeded his grandfather Zadok as high priest (1 Chr. 6:9; 1 Kings 4:2) in the days of Solomon. He officiated at the consecration of the temple (1 Chr. 6:10).

(3.) The son of Johanan, high priest in the reign of Abijah and Asa (2 Chr. 6:10, 11).

(4.) High priest in the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 14:21; 2 Chr. 26:17-20). He was contemporary with the prophets Isaiah, Amos, and Joel.

(5.) High priest in the days of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 31:10-13). Of the house of Zadok.

(6.) Several other priests and Levites of this name are mentioned (1 Chr. 6:36; Ezra 7:1; 1 Chr. 9:11; Neh. 3:23, etc.).

(7.) The original name of Abed-nego (Dan. 1:6, 7, 11, 16). He was of the royal family of Judah, and with his other two companions remarkable for his personal beauty and his intelligence as well as piety.

(8.) The son of Oded, a remarkable prophet in the days of Asa (2 Chr. 15:1). He stirred up the king and the people to a great national reformation.

Uzziah - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

A contracted form of Azari'ah the Lord is my strength. (1.) One of Amaziah's sons, whom the people made king of Judah in his father's stead (2 Kings 14:21; 2 Chr. 26:1). His long reign of about fifty-two years was "the most prosperous excepting that of Jehosaphat since the time of Solomon." He was a vigorous and able ruler, and "his name spread abroad, even to the entering in of Egypt" (2 Chr. 26:8, 14). In the earlier part of his reign, under the influence of Zechariah, he was faithful to Jehovah, and "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kings 15:3; 2 Chr. 26:4, 5); but toward the close of his long life "his heart was lifted up to his destruction," and he wantonly invaded the priest's office (2 Chr. 26:16), and entering the sanctuary proceeded to offer incense on the golden altar. Azariah the high priest saw the tendency of such a daring act on the part of the king, and with a band of eighty priests he withstood him (2 Chr. 26:17), saying, "It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense." Uzziah was suddenly struck with leprosy while in the act of offering incense (26:19-21), and he was driven from the temple and compelled to reside in "a several house" to the day of his death (2 Kings 15:5, 27; 2 Chr. 26:3). He was buried in a separate grave "in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings" (2 Kings 15:7; 2 Chr. 26:23). "That lonely grave in the royal necropolis would eloquently testify to coming generations that all earthly monarchy must bow before the inviolable order of the divine will, and that no interference could be tolerated with that unfolding of the purposes of God, which, in the fulness of time, would reveal the Christ, the true High Priest and King for evermore" (Dr. Green's Kingdom of Israel, etc.).

(2.) The father of Jehonathan, one of David's overseers (1 Chr. 27:25).

az-a-ri'-a `azaryahu and `azaryah, ("Yahweh has helped"):

(1) King of Judah. See UZZIAH.

(2) A Judahite of the house of Ethan the Wise (1Ch 2:8).

(3) The son of Jehu, descended from an Egyptian through the daughter of Sheshan (1Ch 2:38).

(4) A son of Ahimaaz and grandson of Zadok (1Ch 6:9).

(5) A son of Zadok the high priest and an official of Solomon (1Ki 4:2).

(6) A high priest and son of Johanan (1Ch 6:10).

(7) A Levite, ancestor of Samuel, and Heman the singer (1Ch 6:36).

(8) A son of Nathan and captain of Solomon's tax collectors (1Ki 4:5).

(9) A prophet in the reign of King Asa; his father's name was Oded (2Ch 15:1-8).

(10 and 11) Two sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah (2Ch 21:2).

(12) King of Judah (2Ch 22:6, called Ahaziah in 2Ch 22:1).

(13) A son of Jeroham, who helped to overthrow Athaliah, and place Joash on the throne (2Ch 23:1).

(14) A son of Johanan and a leading man of Ephraim, mentioned in connection with the emancipated captives taken by Pekah (2Ch 28:12).

(15) A Levite of the family of Merari, who took part in cleansing the temple in the days of Hezekiah (2Ch 29:12).

(16) A high priest who rebuked King Uzziah for arrogating to himself priestly functions (2Ch 26:16-20).

(17) The father of Seraiah and son of Hilkiah (1Ch 6:13f).

(18) A son of Hoshaiah, and a bitter enemy of Jeremiah (Jer 43:2ff).

(19) One of the royal captives taken to Babylon, whose name was changed to Abed-nego (Da 1:7).

(20) The son of Maaseiah, who helped repair the walls of Jerusalem (Ne 3:23f).

(21) A Levite who assisted Ezra to expound the Law (Ne 8:7).

(22) A priest who sealed the covenant (Ne 10:2).

(23) A prince of Judah mentioned in connection with the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem (Ne 12:32f).

W. W. Davies

u-zi'-a, oo-zi'-a (`uzziyah (2Ki 15:13,30; Ho 1:1; Am 1:1; Zec 14:5), `uzziyahu (2Ki 15:32,34; Isa 1:1; 6:1; 7:1; 2Ch 26:1 ff; 27:2); also called `azaryah (2Ki 14:21; 15:1,7; 1Ch 3:12), 'azaryahu (2Ki 15:6,8); Azarias, in Kings, elsewhere Ozias; the significations of the names are similar, the former meaning "my strength is Yah"; the latter, "Yah has helped." It has been thought that the form "Uzziah" may have originated by corruption from the other. The history of the reign is given in 2Ki 15:1-8 and 2Ch 26):

1. Accession: Uzziah or Azariah, son of Amaziah, and 11th king of Judah, came to the throne at the age of 16. The length of his reign is given as 52 years. The chronological questions raised by this statement are considered below. His accession may here be provisionally dated in 783 BC. His father Amaziah had met his death by popular violence (2Ki 14:19), but Uzziah seems to have been the free and glad choice of the people (2Ch 26:1).

2. Foreign Wars:

The unpopularity of his father, owing to a great military disaster, must ever have been present to the mind of Uzziah, and early in his reign he undertook and successfully carried through an expedition against his father's enemies of 20 years before, only extending his operations over a wider area. The Edomites, Philistines and Arabians were successively subdued (these being members of a confederacy which, in an earlier reign, had raided Jerusalem and nearly extirpated the royal family, 2Ch 21:16; 22:1); the port of Eloth, at the head of the Red Sea, was restored to Judah, and the city rebuilt (2Ki 14:22; 2Ch 26:2); the walls of certain hostile towns, Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod, were razed to the ground, and the inhabitants of Gur-baal and Maan were reduced to subjection (2Ch 26:6,7). Even the Ammonites, East of the Jordan, paid tribute to Uzziah, and "his name spread abroad even to the entrance to Egypt; for he waxed exceeding strong" (2Ch 26:8).

3. Home Defenses:

Uzziah next turned his attention to securing the defenses of his capital and country. The walls of Jerusalem were strengthened by towers built at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at an angle in the wall (see plan of Jerusalem in the writer's Second Temple in Jerusalem); military stations were also formed in Philistia, and in the wilderness of the Negeb, and these were supplied with the necessary cisterns for rain storage (2Ch 26:6,10). The little realm had now an extension and prosperity to which it had been a stranger since the days of Solomon.

4. Uzziah's Leprosy and Retirement:

These successes came so rapidly that Uzziah had hardly passed his 40th year when a great personal calamity overtook him. In the earlier part of his career Uzziah had enjoyed and profited by the counsels of Zechariah, a man "who had understanding in the vision of God" (2Ch 26:5), and during the lifetime of this godly monitor "be set himself to seek God." Now it happened to him as with his grandfather Jehoash, who, so long as his preserver Jehoiada lived, acted admirably, but, when he died, behaved like an ingrate, and killed his son (2Ki 12:2; 2Ch 24:2,22). So now that Zechariah was gone, Uzziah's heart was lifted up in pride, and he trespassed against Yahweh. In the great kingdoms of the East, the kings had been in the habit of exercising priestly as well as royal functions. Elated with his prosperity, Uzziah determined to exercise what he may have thought was his royal prerogative in burning incense on the golden altar of the temple. Azariah the high priest, with 80 others, offered stout remonstrance; but the king was only angry, and pressed forward with a censer in his hand, to offer the incense. Ere, however, he could scatter the incense on the coals, and while yet in anger, the white spots of leprosy showed themselves upon his forehead. Smitten in conscience, and thrust forth by the priests, he hastened away, and was a leper ever after (2Ch 26:16-21).

Uzziah's public life was now ended. In his enforced privacy, he may still have occupied himself with his cattle and agricultural operations, "for he loved husbandry" (2Ch 26:10); but his work in the government was over. Both Kings and Chronicles state in nearly identical words: "Jotham the king's son was over the household, judging the people of the land" (2Ki 15:5; 2Ch 26:21). Works of the same kind as those undertaken by Uzziah, namely, building military stations in the hills and forests of Judah, repairing the walls of city and temple, etc., are attributed to Jotham (2Ch 27:3); the truth being that Jotham continued and completed the enterprises his father had undertaken.

5. Chronology of Reign:

The chronology of the reign of Uzziah presents peculiar difficulties, some of which, probably, cannot be satisfactorily solved. Reckoning upward from the fall of Samaria in 721 BC, the Biblical data would suggest 759 as the first year of Jotham. If, as is now generally conceded, Jotham's regnal years are reckoned from the commencement of his regency, when his father had been stricken with leprosy, and if, as synchronisms seem to indicate, Uzziah was about 40 years of age at this time, we are brought for the year of Uzziah's accession to 783. His death, 52 years later, would occur in 731. (On the other hand, it is known that Isaiah, whose call was in the year of Uzziah's death, Isa 6:1, was already exercising his ministry in the reign of Jotham, Isa 1:1.) Another note of time is furnished by the statement that the earliest utterance of Amos the prophet was "two years before the earthquake" (Am 1:1). This earthquake, we are told by Zechariah, was "in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah" (Zec 14:5). Josephus likewise embodies a tradition that the earthquake occurred at the moment of the king's entry into the temple (Ant., IX, x, 4). Indubitably the name of Uzziah was associated in the popular mind with this earthquake. If the prophecy of Amos was uttered a year or two before Jeroboam's death, and this is placed in 759 BC, we are brought near to the date already given for Uzziah's leprosy (Jeroboam's date is put lower by others).

In 2 Kings 15 Uzziah is referred to as giving data for the accessions of the northern kings (15:8, Zechariah; 15:13, Shallum; 15:17, Menahem; 15:23, Pekahiah; 15:27, Pekah), but it is difficult to fit these synchronisms into any scheme of chronology, if taken as regnal years. Uzziah is mentioned as the father of Jotham in 2Ki 15:32,34; 2Ch 27:2, and as the grandfather of Ahaz in Isa 7:1. He was living when Isaiah began his ministry (Isa 1:1; 6:1); when Hoses prophesied (Ho 1:1); and is the king in whose reign the afore-mentioned earthquake took place (Zec 14:5). His name occurs in the royal genealogies in 1Ch 3:11 and Mt 1:8,9. The place of his entombment, owing to his having been a leper, was not in the sepulchers of the kings, but "in the garden of Uzza" (2Ki 21:26; compare 2Ch 26:23). Isaiah is stated to have written a life of Uzziah (2Ch 26:22).

W. Shaw Caldecott

1. Son of Ahimaaz. (1 Chronicles 6:9) He appears from (1 Kings 4:2) to have succeeded Zadok, his grandfather, in the high priesthood, in the reign of Solomon, Ahimaaz having died before Zadok. (B.C. About 1000.) [AHIMAAZ]
2. A chief officer of Solomon’s, the son of Nathan, perhaps David’s grandson. (1 Kings 4:5)
3. Tenth king of Judah, more frequently called Uzziah. (2 Kings 14:21; 15:1,6,8,17,23,27; 1 Chronicles 8:12)
4. Son of Ethan, of the sons of Zerah, where, perhaps, Zerahiah is the more probable reading. (1 Chronicles 2:8)
5. Son of Jehu of the family of the Jerahmeelites, and descended from Jarha the Egyptian slave of Sheshan. (1 Chronicles 2:38,39) He was probably one of the captains of hundreds in the time of Athaliah mentioned in (2 Chronicles 23:1) (B.C. 886.)
6. The son of Johanan. (1 Chronicles 6:10) He must have been high priest in the reign of Abijah and Asa. (B.C. 939.)
7. Another Azariah is inserted between Hilkiah, in Josiah’s reign, and Seraiah who was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar, in (1 Chronicles 6:13,14)
8. Son of Zephaniah, a Kohathite, and ancestor of Samuel the prophet. (1 Chronicles 6:36) Apparently the same as Uzziah in ver. 24.
9. Azariah; the son of Oded, (2 Chronicles 15:1) called simply Oded in ver. 8, was a remarkable prophet in the days of King Asa, and a contemporary of Azariah the son of Johanan the high priest, and of Hanani the seer. (B.C. 939.)
10. Son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. (2 Chronicles 21:2) (B.C.910.)
11. Another son of Jehoshaphat, and brother of the preceding. (2 Chronicles 21:2)
12. In (2 Chronicles 22:6) Azariah is a clerical error for Ahaziah.
13. Son of Jeroham, one of the captains of Judah in the time of Athaliah. (2 Chronicles 23:1)
14. The high priest in the reign of Uzziah king of Judah. The most memorable event of his life is that which is recorded in (2 Chronicles 26:17-20) (B.C. 810.) Azariah was contemporary with Isaiah the prophet and with Amos and Joel.
15. Son of Johanan, one of the captains of Ephraim in the reign of Ahaz. (2 Chronicles 28:12)
16. A Kohathite, father of Joel, in the reign of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 29:12) (B.C. 726.)
17. A Merarite, son of Jehalelel, in the time of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 29:12)
18. The high priest in the days of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 31:10,13) He appears to have co operated zealously with the king in that thorough purification of the temple and restoration of the temple service, which was so conspicuous a feature in his reign. He succeeded Urijah, who was high priest in the reign of Ahaz.
19. Son of Maaseiah who repaired part of the wall of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. (Nehemiah 3:23,24) (B.C. 446-410.)
20. One of the leaders of the children of the province who went up from Babylon with Zerubbabel. (Nehemiah 7:7)
21. One of the Levites who assisted Ezra in instructing the people in the knowledge of the law. (Nehemiah 8:7)
22. One of the priests who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (Nehemiah 10:2) and probably the same with the Azariah who assisted in the dedication of the city wall. (Nehemiah 12:33)
23. (Jeremiah 13:2) (Jezaniah).
24. The original name of Abednego. (Daniel 1:6,7,11,19) He appears to have been of the seed-royal of Judah. (B.C. 603.)

1. King of Judah B.C. 809-8 to 757-6. In some passages his name appears in the lengthened form Azariah: After the murder of Amaziah, his son Uzziah was chosen by the people, at the age of sixteen, to occupy the vacant throne; and for the greater part of his long reign of fifty-two years he lived in the fear of God, and showed himself a wise, active and pious ruler. He never deserted the worship of the true God, and was much influenced by Zechariah, a prophet who is mentioned only in connection with him. (2 Chronicles 26:5) So the southern kingdom was raised to a condition of prosperity which it had not known since the death of Solomon. The end of Uzziah was less prosperous than his beginning. Elated with his splendid career, he determined to burn incense on the altar of God, but was opposed by the high priest Azariah and eighty others. See (Exodus 30:7,8; Numbers 16:40; 18:7) The king was enraged at their resistance, and, as he pressed forward with his censer was suddenly smitten with leprosy. This lawless attempt to burn incense was the only exception to the excellence of his administration. (2 Chronicles 27:2) Uzziah was buried "with his fathers," yet apparently not actually in the royal sepulchres. (2 Chronicles 26:23) During his reign a great earthquake occurred. (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5)
2. A Kohathite Levite, and ancestor of Samuel. (1 Chronicles 6:24) (9).
3. A priest of the sons of Harim, who had taken a foreign wife in the days of Ezra. (Ezra 10:21) (B.C. 458.)
4. Father of Athaiah or Uthai. (Nehemiah 11:4)
5. Father of Jehonathan, one of David’s overseers. (1 Chronicles 27:25) (B.C. about 1053.)

Definition

Azariah was the name of several men in the Old Testament.

• One Azariah is best known by his Babylonian name, Abednego. He was one of many Israelites from Judah who were captured by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and taken to live in Babylon. Azariah and his fellow Israelites Hananiah and Mishael refused to worship the Babylonian king, so he had them thrown into a blazing furnace as punishment. But God protected them and they were not harmed at all.
• Uzziah king of Judah was also known as “Azariah.”
• Another Azariah was an Old Testament high priest.
• In the time of the prophet Jeremiah, a man named Azariah wrongly urged the Israelites to disobey God by leaving their homeland.

(Translation suggestions: Translate Names)

(See also: Babylon, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Jeremiah, Uzziah)

Bible References

• 1 Chronicles 2:38
• 1 Kings 4:2
• 2 Chronicles 15:1
• Daniel 1:6-7
• Jeremiah 43:2

Word Data

• Strong’s: H5838

Definition

Uzziah became king of Judah at the age of 16 and reigned 52 years, which was an unusually long reign. Uzziah was also known as “Azariah.”

• King Uzziah was well-known for his organized and skilled military. He had towers built to protect the city and had specially-designed weapons of war mounted on them to hurl arrows and large stones.
• As long as Uzziah served the Lord, he prospered. Toward the end of his reign, however, he became proud and he disobeyed the Lord by burning incense in the temple, which only the priest was permitted to do.
• Because of this sin, Uzziah became sick with leprosy and had to live separately from other people until the end of his reign.

(Translation suggestions: How to Translate Names)

(See also: Judah, king, leprosy, reign, watchtower)

Bible References

• 2 Kings 14:21
• Amos 1:1
• Hosea 1:1
• Isaiah 6:1-2
• Matthew 1:7-8

Word Data

• Strong’s: H5818, H5838, H5839