2 Kings 15:1-7

Reign of Azariah (Uzziah). The long reign of this king passes almost unnoticed in this book. He is called Uzziah elsewhere in Chronicles and Isaiah, except 1 Chronicles 3:12.

2 Kings 15:5. Yahweh smote the king with leprosy. The isolation of men thus afflicted was enforced (2 Kings 7:3; see Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:3). It is uncertain what is meant by a several house. The Heb. word means free. Azariah reigned but did not rule during his latter years. If most of the sixteen years of Jotham's reign fell within his father's lifetime, the discrepancy of the totals of the regnal years of Israel and Judah, reckoned from Jehu to the fall of Samaria, is sensibly diminished.