5 The Lord his God handed him over to the king of Syria. The Syrians[e] defeated him and deported many captives to Damascus.[f] He was also handed over to the king of Israel, who thoroughly defeated him.[g] 6 In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 warriors in Judah, because they had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors.[h]

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother[a] was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. 2 He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done.[b] (He did not, however, have the audacity to enter the temple.)[c] Yet the people were still sinning.

16 But once he became powerful, his pride destroyed him.[a] He disobeyed[b] the Lord his God. He entered the Lord’s temple to offer incense on the incense altar. 17 Azariah the priest and eighty other brave priests of the Lord followed him in. 18 They confronted[c] King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not proper for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord. That is the responsibility of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have disobeyed[d] and the Lord God will not honor you!”

26 All the people of Judah took Uzziah,[a] who was sixteen years old, and made him king in his father Amaziah’s place. 2 Uzziah[b] built up Elat and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah[c] had passed away.[d] 3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecholiah, who was from Jerusalem.

14 When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people[a] of Seir and made them his personal gods.[b] He bowed down before them and offered them sacrifices. 15 The Lord was angry at Amaziah and sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why are you following[c] these gods[d] that could not deliver their own people from your power?”[e]

25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. 3 After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. 4 Yet he did not put their children to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”[a]

20 God’s Spirit energized[a] Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why are you violating the commands of the Lord? You will not be prosperous. Because you have rejected the Lord, he has rejected you!’”

Martin Luther wrote of resurrection: This article has suffered and still suffers the most opposition and is most difficult to believe…The reason for this is that no article so contradicts experience as this one does. For our eyes see that all the world is swept away by death and dies.