wroth; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy [1]brake forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense. 20And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. 21And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a [2]several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land. 22Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write. 23So Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.
20. the LORD had smitten him] So 2 Kin. xv. 5.
21—23 (= 2 Kin. xv. 5—7). The End of Uzziah.
21. a several house] i.e. separate, special; cp. Num. xxviii. 13; Matt. xxv. 15. The same Heb. word is used in Ps. lxxxviii. 5, "free (R.V. 'cast off') among the dead."
cut off] The same Heb. word is translated in the same way in Is. liii. 8.
22. did Isaiah . . . write] This statement is not in Kings. Uzziah is mentioned in Is. vi. 1, and this fact may be all that lies behind the present statement. It is utterly improbable that the reference is to some writing of Isaiah which has not been preserved. Possibly some section of the midrashic Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel is meant, presuming that such a work was known to the Chronicler actually or by tradition (see Introd. § 5, pp. xxxii, xxxvi).
23. the field of burial] i.e. not actually in the tombs of the kings, lest they should be defiled, but in ground adjoining the royal tombs. Kings has simply "in the city of David." Cp. xxi. 20, xxiv. 25, xxviii. 27.
