The Second Book of the Chronicles
2 Chronicles 27
Chapter XXVII · Vol. II, pp. 875–876
1 Jotham reigning well prospereth. 5 He subdueth the Ammonites. 7 His acts, reign, and death. 9 Ahaz succeedeth him.
1 Jotham wasa 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 bdid 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.1 And the people did yet corruptly.
b ch.26.4. 2 Ki.15.34.
A.M. 3246. B.C. 758.
1 That is, he imitated his father in agriculture, war, and all other things, with the exception of his father's proud and profane attempt to usurp the priest's office.—C.
3 He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of cOphel2 he built much.3
c Or, the tower, Ne.3.26; 11.21.
2 Some remarkable tower that formed a feature (so to speak) of the city, and a remarkable subject in its history. The Tower of London, and the Castle of Edinburgh, may furnish modern parallels and illustrations.—C.
3 Ophel was the southern continuation of Mount Moriah, outside the temple area. The massive wall which encompassed it has recently been discovered by Captain Warren of the Palestine Exploration Society. Probably the remains of towers which he is now laying bare may be those built by Jotham.—P.
4 Moreover, dhe built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
d ch.26.9,10; 14.7; 11.5-10; 8.2-6.
5 He fought also with the eking of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver[≈ 3.4 tonnes · 3.4 tons · silver worth ≈ US$5.9 million],4 and ten thousand measures5 of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much6 did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year and the third.
6 So Jotham became mighty, because fhe prepared7 his ways before the LORD his God.
f Or, established, ch.19.3.
7 Preparation always implies thought previous to action. This thought implies faithful looking to God, self-examination, and repentance, Ps.119.59.—C.
7 Now the grest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways,8 lo, they are written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
g ch.20.34; 28.26,27; 32.32,33; 20.22,23.
8 It was in his days, according to 2 Ki.15.37, that Resin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel began to cut Judah short.—I.
8 He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
9 And hJotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
h 2 Ki.15.38.
Notes
Reflections.—It is happy when children imitate their parents' goodness, and carefully avoid their faults. But hard is the task to bring an obdurate people off from their corrupt customs. And often magistrates and ministers, who are tender and circumspect in their own lives, have not courage and zeal enough for doing what they might in the reformation of others. A fixed steadfastness in the truth is the most necessary, and at the same time the most excellent, mean for the resistance of evil and performance of good. What reward hath godliness?—it hath the promises of this life and that which is to come. But, alas! the best magistrates and ministers are often quickly removed, and that in order to make way for monsters to fill their place.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.