2 Chronicles 27:1-9--Jotham Reigns in Judah

2 Chronicles 27
English Standard Version

Jotham Reigns in Judah
27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still followed corrupt practices. 3 He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD and did much building on the wall of Ophel. 4 Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and forts and towers on the wooded hills. 5 He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. And the Ammonites gave him that year 100 talents of silver, and 10,000 cors of wheat and 10,000 of barley. The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years. 6 So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. 7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 8 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he 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 place.

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Jotham, the son of Uzziah was the next in line to reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem.  His term was much shorter than that of his father--only sixteen years.  He was also a good king and did not make the mistakes that his father did of entering the Temple to offer incense.  However, the damage had been done by the former kings, and the people followed their idols and worshiped in every grove and on top of ever hill like the pagans had taught them.

Jotham built the wall of Ophel and he built other walled cities and forts and towers to defend the people of Judah from enemies without, but their greatest enemy was at work within the people.  It's not something that armies or walls or stone towers would protect against.  Yet, because he was righteous, the LORD gave him victory in battle against the king of the Ammonites so that the Ammonites became subject to Judah and paid tribute of 100 talents of silver and 10,000 cors of wheat and 10,000 cors of barley.  Such tributes hasn't been paid by a foreign nation (to my recollection) since the time of King Solomon.  The Ammonites paid him this tribute for three years, but it seems like they stopped paying tributed after that.

Not much else is said about Jotham other than we can read more about him the book of Kings (and you can starting in 2 Kings 15:32, but he doesn't get much space there).  You would think a lot of ink might be spilled for a good king like this, but in many ways it seems like his reign was rather unremarkable.  He was 25 years old when he took the throne and reigned for 16 years (I'm not sure if this started when his father became leprous or after his father died).  Unlike his father, he would be buried in the royal tombs with the other kings (remember his father was buried in a king owned by the kings in a regular grave because of his leprosy).  Jotham's son Ahaz will reign after him, and we'll start to talk about Ahaz next time (note that there will be very little to say tomorrow about Ahaz because the bulk of his story will come the next day when the LORD allows Judah to be defeated because of their idolatry).