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2 Kings15:1–7

Azariah Reigns in Judah

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2 Kings 15:1–7 — Azariah Reigns in Judah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah became king of Judah.

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

‘eś·rîm wā·še·ḇa‘ šā·nāh biš·naṯ lə·yā·rā·ḇə·‘ām me·leḵ yiś·rā·’êl ‘ă·zar·yāh ḇen- ’ă·maṣ·yāh mā·laḵ me·leḵ yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word13 · parsed
עֶשְׂרִ֤ים‘eś·rîmIn the twenty-seventhH6242
√ ʻesrîym — twentyNumbercommon plural
וָשֶׁ֙בַע֙wā·še·ḇa‘. . .H7651
√ shebaʻ — seven (as the sacred full one)Conjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular
שָׁנָ֔הšā·nāh. . .H8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
בִּשְׁנַ֨תbiš·naṯyearH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
šâneh: a year, a revolution of time The construct bišnaṯ opens the synchronism that frames every reign in Kings: Judah's kings are dated by Israel's and Israel's by Judah's, so that the two ruined halves of the one people keep measuring each other. It is precisely this interlocking that breaks down at this verse, since 2 Kings 14:2, 14:17 and 14:23 cannot be made to yield a twenty-seventh year.
לְיָרָבְעָ֖םlə·yā·rā·ḇə·‘āmof Jeroboam’sH3379
√ Yârobʻâm — Jarobam, the name of two Israelite kingsPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Jeroboam II of Israel, the northern king by whose regnal count Judah's new king is dated.
מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵreignH4428
√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לyiś·rā·’êlover IsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
עֲזַרְיָ֥ה‘ă·zar·yāhAzariahH5838
√ ʻĂzaryâh — Azarjah, the name of nineteen IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
ʻĂzaryâh: Azarjah, the name of nineteen Israelites The name is common in the lexicon (nineteen bearers) and common in this very story: the priest who withstands the king in the Chronicler's account bears it too, as Cambridge records at v. 5. Ellicott adds external attestation, naming an Azriyâhu of Judah in two fragmentary inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser II, though he flags that it conflicts with the ordinary chronology.
בֶן־ḇen-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
אֲמַצְיָ֖ה’ă·maṣ·yāhof AmaziahH558
√ ʼĂmatsyâh — Amatsjah, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
מָלַ֛ךְmā·laḵbecame kingH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign Qal perfect, third masculine singular: the bare statement that he reigned, with no object and no ceremony. Benson and Poole both gloss the verb here as beginning "solely and fully to exercise his regal power," which is their way of fitting the perfect around the interregnum they posit; the Hebrew itself claims only the fact.
מֶ֥לֶךְme·leḵ. . .H4428
√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct
יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Judah, the southern kingdom, named last in the formula as the object of the reign.
2

He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem.

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hā·yāh šêš ‘eś·rêh ben- šā·nāh ḇə·mā·lə·ḵōw mā·laḵ bî·rū·šā·lim wa·ḥă·miš·šîm ū·šə·ta·yim šā·nāh ’im·mōw wə·šêm yə·ḵā·lə·yā·hū mî·rū·šā·lim

Word by word15 · parsed
הָיָ֣הhā·yāhHe wasH1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
שֵׁ֨שׁšêšsixteenH8337
√ shêsh — six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the hand)Numberfeminine singular
עֶשְׂרֵ֤ה‘eś·rêh. . .H6240
√ ʻâsâr — ten (only in combination), iNumberfeminine singular
בֶּן־ben-years oldH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
bên: a son, a builder of the family name The age idiom. Sixteen is the number the historian gives, and both Poole and JFB read it against the murder of Amaziah in 2 Kings 14:19-21, where the people take the boy and make him king. Gill reckons the fifty-two years exclusive of the minority; Cambridge and K&D deny any interregnum at all. The Hebrew arbitrates none of this.
שָׁנָה֙šā·nāh. . .H8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
בְמָלְכ֔וֹḇə·mā·lə·ḵōwwhen he became kingH4427
√ mâlak — to reignPreposition-bVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign (infinitive construct) "In his reigning": an unbounded verbal noun, not a coronation date. Everything the commentators build on this verse, regency, minority, co-regency, has to be poured into that open infinitive, which is why no two of them agree.
מָלַ֖ךְmā·laḵand he reignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign The perfect now gives the total: fifty-two years, the longest reign in Judah after Manasseh. Henry's whole comment on the unit rests on this length, and K&D observes that Kings records not a single special act from all of it.
בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
וַחֲמִשִּׁ֤יםwa·ḥă·miš·šîmfifty-twoH2572
√ chămishshîym — fiftyConjunctive wawNumbercommon plural
וּשְׁתַּ֙יִם֙ū·šə·ta·yim. . .H8147
√ shᵉnayim — twoConjunctive wawNumberfd
שָׁנָ֔הšā·nāhyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
אִמּ֔וֹ’im·mōwHis mother’sH517
√ ʼêm — a mother (as the bond of the family)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
ʼêm: a mother, the bond of the family The queen mother is named in the Judahite formula as a matter of course; she is a fixed element of the southern accession notice and never of the northern one.
וְשֵׁ֣םwə·šêmnameH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
יְכָלְיָ֖הוּyə·ḵā·lə·yā·hūwas JecoliahH3203
√ Yᵉkolyâh — Jekoljah or Jekiljah, an IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular
Jecoliah, of whom Gill says there is no further account anywhere; Pulpit notes Josephus calls her Achiala.
מִירוּשָׁלִָֽם׃mî·rū·šā·limshe was from JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-mNounproperfeminine singular
3

And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ya·‘aś hay·yā·šār bə·‘ê·nê Yah·weh kə·ḵōl ’ă·šer- ’ā·ḇîw ’ă·maṣ·yā·hū ‘ā·śāh

Word by word9 · parsed
וַיַּ֥עַשׂway·ya·‘aśAnd he didH6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
ʻâsâh: to do or make, in the broadest sense The standing verb of the royal verdict formula. In Kings a reign is assessed by what a man did, never by what he said or intended, and the same root frames the closing notice at v. 6 ("all that he did").
הַיָּשָׁ֖רhay·yā·šār[what was] rightH3477
√ yâshâr — straight (literally or figuratively)ArticleAdjectivemasculine singular
yâshâr: straight (literally or figuratively) The article makes it a known quantity: not "some right things" but "the straight," the acknowledged standard. Ellicott narrows its force precisely, saying it means the king supported the legitimate worship and countenanced no foreign cultus, which is a policy verdict, not a heart verdict.
בְּעֵינֵ֣יbə·‘ê·nêin the eyesH5869
√ ʻayin — an eye (literally or figuratively)Preposition-bNouncdc
ʻayin: an eye Construct dual: the eyes are the LORD's, and the whole unit turns on them, since the same God who sees the straightness in v. 3 strikes the king's body in v. 5.
יְהוָ֑הYah·wehof the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
The covenant name, standing as the subject of assessment for the whole dynasty.
כְּכֹ֥לkə·ḵōljust asH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-kNounmasculine singular
kôl: the whole A total comparison to the father, not a partial one. Benson reads it as "like him beginning well, but not persevering," and K&D says the same of both men, that Amaziah was unfaithful in his closing years and Uzziah sought God only while Zechariah lived.
אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
אָבִֽיו׃’ā·ḇîwhis fatherH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
אֲמַצְיָ֥הוּ’ă·maṣ·yā·hūAmaziahH558
√ ʼĂmatsyâh — Amatsjah, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
עָשָׂ֖ה‘ā·śāhhad doneH6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
ʻâsâh: to do or make Qal perfect of the father's completed record. The historian judges the son by a finished file, which is why the qualified verdict of 2 Kings 14:3 is silently imported into this one.
4

Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

raq hab·bā·mō·wṯ lō- sā·rū hā·‘ām ‘ō·wḏ mə·zab·bə·ḥîm ū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîm bab·bā·mō·wṯ

Word by word9 · parsed
רַ֥קraqNeverthelessH7535
√ raq — properly, leanness, iAdverb
raq: only, except The hinge of every qualified verdict in Kings. Poole simply cross-refers it to 2 Kings 14:4, where the same particle qualifies Amaziah, which is the point: father and son receive the same subtraction.
הַבָּמ֖וֹתhab·bā·mō·wṯthe high placesH1116
√ bâmâh — an elevationArticleNounfeminine plural
bâmâh: an elevation Literally a height, then by extension the raised worship site. These are not shrines of foreign gods in the Judahite formula but irregular places for YHWH's own worship, which is why a king can be called straight and still leave them standing. Gill notes this was the case for every king until Hezekiah.
לֹא־lō-were notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
סָ֑רוּsā·rūtaken awayH5493
√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbQalPerfectthird person common plural
çûwr: to turn off Qal perfect, plural, with an inanimate subject. The grammar makes the high places the ones who fail to move, not the king who fails to move them. This is the most theologically loaded piece of syntax in the verse and English cannot keep it.
הָעָ֛םhā·‘āmthe peopleH5971
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular
ע֥וֹד‘ō·wḏcontinuedH5750
√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb
ʻôwd: iteration or continuance "Still," "yet again." It measures the gap between a good reign and a reformed one.
מְזַבְּחִ֥יםmə·zab·bə·ḥîmsacrificingH2076
√ zâbach — to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice)VerbPielParticiplemasculine plural
zâbach: to slaughter an animal, usually in sacrifice Piel participle: ongoing, habitual, popular. The subject is hāʻām, the people, not the king; the failure indicted here is national practice that a sound royal policy never touched.
וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖יםū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîmand burning incenseH6999
√ qâṭar — to smoke, iConjunctive wawVerbPielParticiplemasculine plural
qâṭar: to smoke, to burn incense The same act the Chronicler says Azariah himself later usurped inside the temple (2 Chronicles 26:16, cited here by K&D, Cambridge, Pulpit and Gill). The people burn incense in the wrong place, and at the end the king will burn it in the right place with the wrong hands.
בַּבָּמֽוֹת׃bab·bā·mō·wṯ[there]H1116
√ bâmâh — an elevationPreposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine plural
5

And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

Yah·weh ’eṯ- way·nag·ga‘ ham·me·leḵ way·hî mə·ṣō·rā‘ ‘aḏ- yō·wm mō·ṯōw way·yê·šeḇ ha·ḥā·p̄ə·šîṯ bə·ḇêṯ ham·me·leḵ ben- wə·yō·w·ṯām ‘al- hab·ba·yiṯ šō·p̄êṭ ’eṯ- ‘am hā·’ā·reṣ

Word by word21 · parsed
יְהוָ֜הYah·wehAnd the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
וַיְנַגַּ֨עway·nag·ga‘afflictedH5060
√ nâgaʻ — properly, to touch, iConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
nâgaʻ: properly, to touch The verb is almost gentle in the Qal; the Piel here makes it a stroke from God, and the noun formed from this root is the technical term of Leviticus 13 for the plague-mark a priest must inspect. So the word choice already places the king under priestly examination, which is bitterly apt if the Chronicler is right that he was struck while usurping the priest's own work. K&D renders the clause plainly: Jehovah smote him, and he became leprous, and says this presupposes an act of guilt.
הַמֶּ֗לֶךְham·me·leḵthe kingH4428
√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular
melek: a king The narrator does not say "YHWH touched Azariah." He says YHWH touched the king, and the office, not the man, is what the blow lands on.
וַיְהִ֤יway·hî. . .H1961
√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
מְצֹרָע֙mə·ṣō·rā‘with leprosyH6879
√ tsâraʻ — to scourge, iVerbPualParticiplemasculine singular
tsâraʻ: to scourge, to be leprous (Pual participle) A relatively rare root, appearing in only eighteen verses, and every other appearance in the narrative books involves someone barred from the camp or the sanctuary. JFB notes that the offense was capital and that the disease was equivalent to death, since it excluded him from all society. The historian of Kings gives no reason for the blow; only the Chronicler supplies one.
עַד־‘aḏ-untilH5704
√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition
י֣וֹםyō·wmthe dayH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine singular construct
מֹת֔וֹmō·ṯōwhe diedH4194
√ mâveth — death (natural or violent)Nounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
וַיֵּ֖שֶׁבway·yê·šeḇso that he livedH3427
√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
yâshab: to sit down, specifically as judge Consecutive imperfect, and the lexicon's own definition makes the irony exact: the root means to sit down, specifically as judge, and it is the standard verb both for a king seated on his throne and for a people settled in their land. Here it governs a house of separation, and four words later the judging is being done by somebody else. The kingdom keeps every one of its verbs; it simply loses the man they belonged to.
הַחָפְשִׁ֑יתha·ḥā·p̄ə·šîṯin a separateH2669
√ chophshûwth — prostration by sicknessArticleNounfeminine singular
chophshûwth: prostration by sickness A genuine crux. The lexicon's gloss and K&D's flat denial of it cannot both stand, and the word occurs in only two verses in the whole Hebrew Bible, here and 2 Chronicles 26:21. Whatever the building was, the legal fact behind it is Leviticus 13:46, which Benson, Poole, Gill and Pulpit all cite: the leper dwells alone, outside the camp. Benson notes that this was the law of the King of kings, and so bound kings no less than subjects.
בְּבֵ֣יתbə·ḇêṯhouseH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
bayith: a house, in the greatest variation of applications The same noun is used twice in this verse for two opposite places: the house of separation where the king sits, and the house (the palace) over which his son is set. One word, and the kingdom split between its two senses.
הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ham·me·leḵwhile [his]H4428
√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular
בֶּן־ben-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
וְיוֹתָ֤םwə·yō·w·ṯāmJothamH3147
√ Yôwthâm — Jotham, the name of three IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
עַל־‘al-had charge ofH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
"Over" the house: Ellicott denies this makes Jotham prefect of the palace and reads it as dwelling in the palace in his father's place; Cambridge compares 1 Kings 4:6 and 2 Kings 19:2, where the office is one of great dignity but in no way a regency.
הַבַּ֔יִתhab·ba·yiṯthe palaceH1004
√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcArticleNounmasculine singular
שֹׁפֵ֖טšō·p̄êṭand governedH8199
√ shâphaṭ — to judge, iVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular
shâphaṭ: to judge Qal participle. Judging is named in Kings as the first royal function (compare Solomon's request in 1 Kings 3:9, cited here by Barnes), so the son performs the throne's central act while the father holds the throne's name.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
עַ֥ם‘amthe peopleH5971
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)Nounmasculine singular construct
הָאָֽרֶץ׃hā·’ā·reṣof the landH776
√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular
ʼerets: the earth, or a land "The people of the land" is a fixed phrase for the landed body of Judah, the same constituency that made this king in 2 Kings 14:21.
6

As for the rest of the acts of Azariah, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer diḇ·rê ‘ă·zar·yā·hū wə·ḵāl ’ă·šer ‘ā·śāh hă·lō- hêm kə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word15 · parsed
וְיֶ֛תֶרwə·ye·ṯerAs for the restH3499
√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
yether: properly, an overhanging, a remainder The formula concedes that the book is a selection. Cambridge notes that the Chronicler credits the full record to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz (2 Chronicles 26:22), and that prophets not infrequently became the historians of their own period.
דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the actsH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
dâbâr: a word The lexicon gives one gloss, "a word," and Hebrew asks it to carry both the deed and the report of the deed. So the closing formula of every reign in Kings rests on a doubling the English cannot hold: a king's words are filed in the scroll of the words of the days. What a man did and what is said of him are the same noun, and this book decides which of them survives.
עֲזַרְיָ֖הוּ‘ă·zar·yā·hūof AzariahH5838
√ ʻĂzaryâh — Azarjah, the name of nineteen IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וְכָל־wə·ḵālalong with allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerhis accomplishmentsH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
עָשָׂ֑ה‘ā·śāh. . .H6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
הֲלֹא־hă·lō-. . .H3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
הֵ֣םhêm. . .H1992
√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural
כְּתוּבִ֗יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmare they not writtenH3789
√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural
kâthab: to grave, to write Qal passive participle. Note what the formula does theologically: the narrator's silence about Azariah's wars, towers, cisterns and armies (all catalogued by Cambridge and Pulpit from 2 Chronicles 26) is not ignorance but editorial refusal. K&D suggests the reason is that none of it left a permanent mark on the kingdom, since Ahaz destroyed the fruits of it.
עַל־‘al-inH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612
√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct
çêpher: properly, writing, a document A scroll, not a bound book; the referent is a royal annal now lost, not the canonical Chronicles, though Gill notes some of the same material was preserved there.
דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
dâbâr: a word The second occurrence, inside the title of the annal: "words of the days."
הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîm. . .H3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural
לְמַלְכֵ֥יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428
√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct
יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
7

And Azariah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in the City of David. And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

‘ă·zar·yāh way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·bə·rū ’ō·ṯōw ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw bə·‘îr dā·wiḏ bə·nōw yō·w·ṯām way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word14 · parsed
עֲזַרְיָה֙‘ă·zar·yāhAnd AzariahH5838
√ ʻĂzaryâh — Azarjah, the name of nineteen IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901
√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
shâkab: to lie down (for rest or decease) The dynastic formula for a peaceful death, and worth weighing against the two kings before him: Joash and Amaziah were both murdered, as the Geneva note observed at v. 5. Azariah's is the first ordinary death in three generations of the house of David, and it comes to a man God had already struck.
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb: father Plural with suffix: the ancestral dead as a company one joins. In Kings the phrase is corporate, not sentimental.
וַיִּקְבְּר֥וּway·yiq·bə·rūand was buriedH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
qâbar: to inter Consecutive imperfect, plural, active, with no stated subject. Cambridge quotes the Chronicler's reason for the irregular grave: they said, He is a leper.
אֹת֛וֹ’ō·ṯōwH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object markerthird person masculine singular
עִם־‘im-nearH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֖יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāw[them]H1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
בְּעִ֣ירbə·‘îrin the CityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
ʻîyr: a city, a place guarded by a watch The city of David: the burial place is a covenant statement, locating this king inside the dynasty promised in 2 Samuel 7 even when his body could not be laid in the family tomb.
דָּוִ֑דdā·wiḏof DavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
בְּנ֖וֹbə·nōwAnd his sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
יוֹתָ֥םyō·w·ṯāmJothamH3147
√ Yôwthâm — Jotham, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign The succession verb, closing the frame opened by the same root at v. 1. K&D is careful here: Jotham did not become king until after Uzziah's death, since he had not been regent but only the administrator of the kingdom's affairs.
תַּחְתָּֽיו׃פtaḥ·tāwin his placeH8478
√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular
tachath: the bottom, as depressed "Under him": the standard successor formula in Kings, spatial in form and dynastic in force.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The number that will not add up — 15:1

The unit opens on a synchronism that cannot be made to work, and the commentators know it. Ellicott calls it flatly an error of transcription for the fifteenth year, showing how the Hebrew numeral signs for 15 and 27 could be confounded, and K&D reaches the same verdict independently, reasoning from 2 Kings 14:2, 14:17 and 14:23 that Azariah must have become king in Jeroboam's fifteenth year and that the datum can only have crept into the text through confusion of the numerals. Pulpit goes further and says the correction here would force corresponding changes at vv. 8, 13, 23 and 27. Gill surveys the ancient attempts, Ben Gersom and Abarbinel among them, and prefers an interregnum of eleven or twelve years during Azariah's minority; JFB and Poole take the same road; Benson adds the detail that the boy may have been only four when his father was killed. Against all of them Cambridge refuses to settle: the margin's co-regency theory, he says, has nothing in Scripture to warrant it, and the numbers present a difficulty which has not yet been solved. ⚙ We follow Cambridge. The Hebrew word-for-word shows only "in year twenty and seven year to Jeroboam," a stacked dating formula with no interpretive give in it, and the honest position is that a verse about time will not tell us its time.

ii. A long reign, measured by a gaze, subtracted by a particle — 15:2-4

Fifty-two years, the second longest reign in Judah, and Kings gives it five clauses. Henry's entire comment on the unit is that Uzziah did for the most part that which was right, and that it was happy for the kingdom that a good reign was a long one. K&D notices what is missing and asks why: not a single special act is recorded, though 2 Chronicles 26 credits this king with wars, towers, cisterns, husbandry and a standing army, and K&D's answer is that none of it outlasted the reign, since Ahaz destroyed the fruits of it. Pulpit and Cambridge both fill the gap from the Chronicler at length. The verdict itself is given in v. 3 as הַיָּשָׁר, "the straight," and located בְּעֵינֵי, in the eyes of YHWH, a correction Cambridge notes the Revised Version made against "sight." Ellicott narrows the verdict to a policy: the king supported the legitimate worship and countenanced no foreign cultus. The Geneva note qualifies it by time, restricting his obedience to the years he listened to the prophet Zachariah, and K&D says the same. Then v. 4 subtracts with רַק. ⚙ The grammar of that subtraction is sharper than any English version: סָרוּ is active and plural with the high places as its subject, so the sentence says the high places did not turn aside, never that the king failed to remove them. Kings will not name an agent, and so the fault sits nowhere and everywhere, on a people caught in two durative participles, sacrificing and burning incense, and on a straight king who left the ground uneven.

iii. YHWH touched the king — 15:5

One verb carries the turn: וַיְנַגַּע, the Piel of a root that means, in the lexicon's own words, "properly, to touch." Ellicott hears the force correctly and says it is "Or, struck," comparing a paralytic stroke and noting that the word plague literally means stroke. Kings gives no reason for the blow. Barnes says plainly that the circumstances are supplied at length by the Chronicler, whom the writer of Kings dismisses in half a dozen verses; Cambridge observes that the more political history in Kings tells us nothing about the reason; Pulpit admits the statement comes in somewhat strangely after a verdict of righteousness. K&D, JFB, Gill, Geneva and Pulpit all fill the silence from 2 Chronicles 26:16, where a king lifted up by power usurps the priest's censer and is struck with leprosy on the spot. ⚙ We take the Chronicler's account as sourced history and the Kings narrator's silence as deliberate compression, and we mark the difference: what this passage itself asserts is the touch, the leprosy, the separate house, and nothing between them. The second crux is the house. הַחָפְשִׁית occurs here and at 2 Chronicles 26:21 and nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, and the sources openly disagree: Barnes reads a house of liberation or freedom; Ellicott prefers sickhouse and argues from Arabic, then cites Lane against Gesenius on that very root; K&D denies the infirmary sense can be traced in Hebrew at all; Cambridge and Pulpit conclude it means a house standing apart, with Pulpit adding that there is no reason to believe hospitals of any kind existed among the Israelites. What all of them agree on is the law behind it, Leviticus 13:46, which Benson calls the law of the King of kings and therefore binding on kings no less than subjects. ⚙ The Hebrew adds one stroke the commentators pass over: the verb for his dwelling is וַיֵּשֶׁב, from a root whose lexical core is to sit, and specifically to sit as judge. The man who should sit and judge now sits alone, while שֹׁפֵט, a participle and not a title, is what his son does instead.

iv. Written elsewhere, buried apart — 15:6-7

The closing formula files the reign under יֶתֶר, the overhang, the leftover, and in a book of annals whose own name is words of the days. Ellicott lists what the overhang contains, from the Philistine and Arab wars to the intrusion into the sanctuary; Cambridge records that the Chronicler credits the whole record to Isaiah son of Amoz, and notes that Isaiah's vision of the Lord in glory came in the year of Azariah's death; Gill says some of it survives in canonical Chronicles and some was written by the prophet. Then the burial. Benson is precise: not in the very sepulchre of the kings, because he was a leper, but in the same field and very near the same place. Cambridge quotes the Chronicler's stated reason, that they said, He is a leper. K&D concludes that he was buried in the earth rather than in the rock tomb, and Pulpit calls this quite consonant with Jewish feeling about the uncleanness of the leper. ⚙ The Hebrew of Kings itself makes none of these distinctions: it says עִם־אֲבֹתָיו twice, with his fathers both times, and lets the anomaly reach us only through Chronicles. And it says וַיִּקְבְּרוּ, "and they buried him," an anonymous plural for the last act done to a king nobody could touch. Cambridge draws the right conclusion from the succession clause: if Jotham had truly been joint ruler through the leprosy years, the ordinary accession formula of v. 7 would scarcely have been written as it stands.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Read the unit by its verbs and it turns on a single pivot. In vv. 1 to 3 the king does (וַיַּעַשׂ) and reigns (מָלַךְ): he is the grammatical subject of his own life. In v. 4 the verbs slip away from him, and the high places themselves become the subject that does not turn aside. In v. 5 he is object: YHWH touches the king, and from there the man only sits. Kings refuses to tell us why, and we should notice how much of what every commentator here says about the reason is imported from 2 Chronicles 26. That silence is itself the lesson this book is teaching. Judah's historian is not writing a biography of Azariah; he is auditing a throne. He grants the straightness, subtracts the high places with one particle, records the stroke without motive, and closes the file. The dynasty survives the audit, but not because the man passed it. He is struck, separated, governed for, and buried apart, and still the last clause reads "and Jotham his son reigned under him," because the house of David rests on the promise of 2 Samuel 7 and not on the health, the piety, or the persistence of whoever happens to be sitting. The high places stayed; so did the throne. Only one of those two facts is good news, and it is not the one about the king.

The throne outlived the man it struck; that is the only reason this chapter has a next verse. (A synthesis line, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The house of freedom: the one other verse in the Bible that knows this word verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun הַחָפְשִׁית (chophshûwth, H2669) that names the king's confinement in v. 5 appears in only two verses in the entire Hebrew Bible, here and in the parallel notice at 2 Chronicles 26:21, where it stands with the same verb tsâraʻ and the same participle shâphaṭ for the son who judges. 2 Chronicles 26:20 supplies what Kings withholds, sharing ʻĂzaryâh, tsâraʻ and the very verb of the touch, nâgaʻ: it is the priests who look on him and thrust him out, and the Lord who had smitten him. Barnes, K&D, Cambridge, Pulpit, Gill, JFB and Geneva all route through this parallel for the cause of the stroke; Cambridge and Pulpit are careful to say Kings itself gives none. This is the closest verbal bond in the unit, and the near-unique lexeme is what makes it more than thematic.

2 Chronicles 26:20 · 2 Chronicles 26:21

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes with 2 Chronicles 26:21, H2669 chophshûwth (in 2 vv, effectively unique to this pair), H6879 tsâraʻ (in 18 vv), H8199 shâphaṭ (in 182 vv); with 2 Chronicles 26:20, H5838 ʻĂzaryâh (in 44 vv), H6879 tsâraʻ (in 18 vv), H5060 nâgaʻ (in 142 vv). The rarity of H2669 carries the verbal tier. This is a parallel account, not a quotation of one book by the other.

The people took him and made him king: where this reign actually begins structural / thematic: confirmed

Every chronological solution offered on v. 1 runs back through 2 Kings 14:21, where the people of Judah take Azariah and make him king after his father's murder, and the Verifier records the link on the names themselves plus the reign verb. Gill, JFB, Poole and Benson all cite that verse for the minority or interregnum; K&D cites it against them, arguing that because the people made him king immediately after the murder, an interregnum is precluded and only a copyist's numeral is left to blame. 1 Chronicles 3:12 anchors the same two names in the Davidic genealogy, which is the line this whole unit exists to keep unbroken. ⚙ The thread is a shared cast of names and a shared succession formula, not a quotation.

2 Kings 14:21 · 1 Chronicles 3:12

basis: Verifier: with 2 Kings 14:21, shared H558 ʼĂmatsyâh (in 39 vv), H5838 ʻĂzaryâh (in 44 vv), H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv); with 1 Chronicles 3:12, shared H558 ʼĂmatsyâh and H5838 ʻĂzaryâh. Real verbal overlap, but it consists of proper names and the common reign verb, which establishes a shared subject and pattern, not a quotation. Tiered structural for that reason.

Jotham, and the prophets who date themselves by these kings structural / thematic: confirmed

The son who judges in v. 5 and succeeds in v. 7 is the hinge of a date-line that runs out of Kings and into the prophets. The Verifier links this unit to Hosea 1:1 on the shared names Yârobʻâm and Yôwthâm, the latter appearing in only twenty-four verses: Hosea dates his own word by Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah and by Jeroboam of Israel, the exact pair of kings that the opening synchronism of v. 1 sets side by side. The same lexeme carries the link to the Jotham notices later in this chapter (2 Kings 15:32, 15:36, 15:38) and in 2 Chronicles 27. ⚙ The point is not a quotation but a shared calendar: the prophetic books hang their chronology on the regnal frame that Kings is here constructing, and Cambridge notes at v. 6 that Isaiah's own vision falls in the year this king died.

Hosea 1:1 · 2 Kings 15:32 · 2 Chronicles 27:1

basis: Verifier: with Hosea 1:1, shared H3379 Yârobʻâm (in 95 vv) and H3147 Yôwthâm (in 24 vv); with 2 Kings 15:32 and 2 Chronicles 27:1, shared H3147 Yôwthâm (in 24 vv) and H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv). Shared proper names across a common dating convention; no quotation is claimed in either direction.

He shall dwell alone: the law that put a king outside the camp structural / thematic: confirmed

Leviticus 13:46 prescribes that the one struck with the plague-mark dwells alone, his dwelling outside the camp, and it is the single text every commentator on v. 5 reaches for: Benson cites it and calls it the law of the King of kings, binding kings no less than subjects; Poole cites it for the same reason; Gill cites it for the separate dwelling; Pulpit quotes its "dwell alone" and "without the camp." The verbal tie is real at the root level, since the participle מְצֹרָע in v. 5 is from tsâraʻ (H6879), the root of the whole Leviticus 13 legislation, and the verb nâgaʻ in v. 5 is the root of the negaʻ, the plague-mark a priest must inspect. ⚙ Honest limitation: this pairing was not among the Verifier's computed thread candidates for this unit, so the shared-lexeme counts above are not machine-confirmed for Leviticus 13:46 specifically. The basis recorded here is the explicit citation by four named commentators plus the shared root of the unit's two key words, and the tier stays structural.

Leviticus 13:46

basis: Not a Verifier-computed pair; basis is the explicit citation of Leviticus 13:46 by Benson, Poole, Gill and Pulpit on this verse, plus the shared roots H6879 tsâraʻ (in 18 vv) and H5060 nâgaʻ (in 142 vv) between 2 Kings 15:5 and the Leviticus 13 leprosy legislation. Shared legal situation and vocabulary, no quotation claimed.

The untouchable king and the King who touches typological

⚙ A figural reading, offered as such. In v. 5 YHWH touches (וַיְנַגַּע, Piel of nâgaʻ) a king, and the touch makes him leprous, separated and finally buried apart. In Matthew 8:2-3 a leper comes to Jesus and Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him, and the touch makes him clean. The direction of contagion is reversed: here holiness strikes, there holiness heals. No verbal basis can be claimed, and none is: the link crosses Testaments and languages, so shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, and the correspondence is figural, resting on the movement from touch to leprosy to separation in one text and from touch to cleansing to restoration to the camp in the other. The pairing of these two passages is a commonplace of Christian reading; the specific contrast drawn here, keyed to the Hebrew verb of v. 5, is ours.

Matthew 8:2-3 · Leviticus 13:46

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible, so no verbal tier is available or claimed. The figural basis is the shared sequence of touch, leprosy and exclusion from the camp, inverted in the Gospel account. The leper-cleansing typology is ancient and widely held; this particular verbal pivot on nâgaʻ is our own and is marked as such.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

In the year that King Uzziah died ancient/widely-held

Cambridge, commenting on v. 6, records the datum without pressing it: Isaiah's great vision of the Lord in His glory was seen in the year of Azariah's death, so that the prophet was living when the record of this reign was closed. Isaiah 6:1 says it exactly so: in the year that King Uzziah died, the prophet saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the seraphim cried holy. ⚙ Set that beside our unit and the timing does the theology. A king had been struck for entering the holy place with a censer in his hand; in the year he finally dies, a man is brought into the holy place, cries that he is undone and unclean, and is touched on the mouth with a coal from the altar rather than struck. The same verb family of touching runs through both scenes. John 12:41 then says that Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke of Him, which is the apostolic warrant for naming the enthroned Lord of Isaiah 6 as Christ. That identification is ancient and widely held; the reading of Uzziah's death year as the deliberate hinge between a usurped priesthood and a purged prophet is our own inference from the dating.

Isaiah 6:1 · Isaiah 6:5-7 · John 12:41

Crown and censer in one hand, lawfully ancient/widely-held

What struck Azariah, on the account K&D, JFB, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge and Pulpit all draw from 2 Chronicles 26:16, was the attempt to hold kingship and priesthood in one hand. JFB puts it in a sentence: elated by great power, he arrogated to himself the functions of both the regal and the sacerdotal offices, as the heathen kings did. K&D adds Oehler's point that not even David or Solomon performed with their own hands the functions the law assigned to the priests. ⚙ The law of Israel kept crown and censer apart, and the leprosy on Uzziah's forehead is the sanction. Yet Zechariah 6:12-13 promises a man named the Branch who will build the temple of the LORD, bear royal honour, sit and rule on his throne, and be a priest on his throne, with the counsel of peace between the two offices. Psalm 110 swears the same union by oath: the LORD's enthroned one is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 7:13-14 reasons from the tribal problem directly, that our Lord sprang out of Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing concerning priests, and grounds the priesthood not in descent but in an indestructible life and a divine oath. The unit before us is the negative proof: the two offices cannot be seized. They can only be given, and they are given once.

Zechariah 6:12-13 · Psalm 110:4 · Hebrews 7:13-14

The son who judged while the father could not be seen novel

⚙ A quieter reading, and we mark it as the more tentative of the three. For the last years of this reign the throne of David worked like this: the king lived, unseen and untouchable, in the house of freedom, while בֶּן־הַמֶּלֶךְ, the king's son, was over the house and stood שֹׁפֵט, judging the people of the land. Ellicott and Cambridge both insist, correctly and against the co-regency theories, that this is not joint kingship: the son holds no crown and takes no title, he simply does the throne's work in the father's name. ⚙ The New Testament describes the Son's present office in strikingly similar terms, that the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), and that He was faithful as a Son over God's house (Hebrews 3:6). We do not press the figure: the father here is under judgment, not above it, and the whole arrangement in 2 Kings 15 is the result of a stroke, not of a gift. Mark this reading novel, an analogy of governance and not a prophecy, and weigh it accordingly.

John 5:22 · Hebrews 3:6

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: Berean Standard Bible with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; all parses, glosses and lexicon entries above come from that apparatus and were not adjusted. What is uncertain in this unit, plainly stated:

1. The date in v. 1 is not reconcilable. Ellicott, K&D and Pulpit emend to "fifteenth"; Gill, JFB, Poole and Benson posit an interregnum or minority; Cambridge says the difficulty has not yet been solved and rejects the co-regency explanation as having nothing in Scripture to warrant it. We have not chosen a solution and have tiered nothing on one.

2. The word הַחָפְשִׁית in v. 5 is a genuine crux, occurring in only two verses in the Hebrew Bible. The lexicon here glosses it "prostration by sickness"; K&D argues that sense cannot be traced in Hebrew at all. Barnes, Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit offer three further readings. We have recorded the disagreement rather than resolving it.

3. Kings gives no reason for the stroke. Every explanation in the movements above (the censer, the usurped priesthood, the pride) comes from 2 Chronicles 26 as quoted by the named commentators, and is marked as such wherever it appears. Barnes, Cambridge and Pulpit all state the silence of Kings explicitly.

4. Source hygiene. The Barnes entry supplied in the brief for 2 Kings 15:1 through 15:4 is plainly his note on 2 Kings 14:28 (Jeroboam, Damascus and Hamath) and has nothing to do with these verses; it has therefore not been quoted at those verses. Barnes is cited only at v. 5, where his text genuinely treats this passage. The Henry entry is a single sentence covering 15:1-7 and is quoted in full. The Pulpit entry at v. 2 contains the printer's slip "ago" for "age," preserved exactly. K&D's cross-reference at v. 7 reads "2 Kings 15:23" where "2 Chronicles 26:23" is meant; the slip is noted at the voice and the reading is unaffected.

5. Thread bases. Four of the five threads rest on Verifier-computed shared lexemes, quoted with their frequencies. The Leviticus 13:46 thread was not a computed candidate and says so in its own badge; the Matthew 8 thread is cross-Testament and therefore typological by rule, never verbal. The Isaiah 6:1 connection is carried in the Christ section rather than as a badged thread, since no lexeme basis for it was computed.

6. The ⚙ material throughout is machine synthesis and fallible. The sola reading and the third Christ entry in particular are offered to be tested, not relied on.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)