Table of Contents
2 Chronicles 27
2 Chronicles 27
1 Jotham was twenty 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.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord. And the people did yet corruptly.
3 He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.
4 Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
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 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.
6 So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.
7 Now 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.
8 He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
9 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
Notes
Cross Reference
Concordance
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 2
<html><b>as all that his father Uzziah</b> the good deeds that his father had done. That is what R. Simeon ben Yohai said in Tractate <i>Sotah</i> (sic. Should be <i>Sukkah</i> 45b): If Abraham would take upon himself all the sins of the generations until his time, I would take upon myself the sins of the generations from Abraham until my time. And if Jotham the son of Uzziah were with me, we would take upon ourselves the sins of all the generations from Abraham until the end of all generations, for in all the kings before him and after him we find sin, except in Jotham. Concerning David it is written, (I Kings 15:5): “Only concerning the matter of Uriah the Hittite”; concerning Solomon it is written, (ibid. 11:4): “His wives turned his heart away”; Rehoboam forsook the Lord’s Torah; Abijah (ibid. 15:3): “went in all his father’s sins”; Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the House of the Lord and put the prophet in prison; Jehoshaphat associated with a wicked man (Ahab and his son Ahaziah); Joram killed his brother; Ahaziah’s mother advised him to sin; Joash killed Zechariah and was [later punished by being] sexually molested (<i>Yer. Kid.</i> 1:7); Amaziah prostrated himself before the graven images of Seir; Uzziah entered the Temple to burn incense; Ahaz went in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made monuments for the baalim; Hezekiah became haughty and there was anger upon him, and the sages did not concur with him on three things that he did (<i>Pes.</i> 4:9); Manasseh did evil in the eyes of the Lord; Josiah did not heed the words of prophecy from God; Zedekiah did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not humble himself before Jeremiah (below 36:12). In Jotham, however, no trace of sin was found. (R. Eliezer the son of Moses told me this.) <b>the people were still acting corruptly</b> as it is written in II Kings (15:35): “the people were still slaughtering and burning incense [on the high places].”</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>and in the wall of the rampart</b> - Heb. עֹפֶל, similar to (Isa. 32:14): “rampart and tower (עפֶל וָבַחַן) .” He built strongholds.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>and in the forests he built palaces</b> - Heb. בִּירָנִית, an expression of a large palace (בִּירָה).</html>