CHAPTER 27

(758 B.C.)

JOTHAM REIGNS OVER JUDAH

¹Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mothers name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.

²And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did (the first ways of his father): howbeit he entered not into the Temple of the LORD. (Williams says, This probably means that, terrified by the fate of his father, he did not associate with the Temple at all. If this be so, then Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz illustrate how incurably diseased is the natural heart. The first king boldly intrudes into the Temple, the second timidly stands away from it, and the third shuts it up.) And the people did yet corruptly (this speaks of idol-worship).

³He built the high gate of the House of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.

⁴Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers (if, instead of building these things, he had broken down the high places at which the people did corruptly, quite possibly it would have brought revival to Judah; regrettably, there has never been a perfect man; all, even when diligently trying to follow the Lord, are, it seems, freighted with failure; it is the Grace of God which gives us the victory, not our perfection).

JOTHAMS VICTORY OVER AMMON

⁵He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.

⁶So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God (what a beautiful statement!).

DEATH OF JOTHAM

⁷Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem (evidently, he was 41 when he died).

⁹And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.