The kings of Israel and Judah

King Jotham

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned sixteen years (2 Kings 15:33) · Right before God · 2 Kings 15:32 to 38; 2 Chronicles 27

Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was one of the good kings of Judah, though little is recorded of him. He did right in the sight of the LORD, learning from his father's fall, for he did not presume to enter the temple as Uzziah had. He built the upper gate of the temple, fortified cities, and defeated the Ammonites. Chronicles offers a striking summary: he became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.

So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.2 Chronicles 27:6 (KJV)

A good but quiet reign

Jotham governed the land during his father Uzziah's leprosy and then reigned in his own right for sixteen years. He did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done, but with one important difference noted by Chronicles: he entered not into the temple of the LORD. He had watched his father's presumption and its terrible consequence, and he kept within the bounds God had set.

The Bible records few of his deeds. He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, worked on the wall of Ophel, built cities and castles and towers, and subdued the Ammonites, who paid him heavy tribute for three years.

A faith shown in steady preparation

The one memorable line about Jotham is his epitaph of quiet strength: So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God. He is a rare thing in the record of the kings, a man of genuine faith about whom little dramatic can be said, whose greatness lay in ordering his life before God and in learning from another's mistake.

The honest note is that, as under the good kings before Hezekiah, the high places were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense there, and Chronicles adds that the people still did corruptly, so his faithfulness did not fully transform the nation. Trouble was also gathering: in his days God began to send Syria and Israel against Judah, pressures that would break over his wicked son Ahaz.

The biblical verdict

The verdict on Jotham is straightforwardly good. He did right, he prepared his ways before the LORD, and he avoided the specific sin that had ruined his father. He is one of the faithful kings of Judah, remembered less for great events than for a life well-ordered before God.

Kings and Chronicles agree, Chronicles adding only the detail of his building works and the telling phrase about his heart. Where his father's strength led to pride, Jotham's strength grew out of humble preparation before God, and it did not destroy him.

Where it points

Jotham teaches that faithfulness is often quiet, that a life ordered before God, learning from the failures of others, is itself a form of greatness even when it makes no dramatic story. Not every servant of God leaves a spectacular record; many simply prepare their ways before the LORD and are made mighty in the doing of ordinary duty.

His restraint, refusing the presumption that had felled his father, points toward the humility of the true King, who though he was in the form of God did not grasp at what was not the time, but kept perfectly within his Father's will. Jotham prepared his ways before the LORD; Christ did the Father's will without a single fault, and so opened the way home for us all.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Uzziah · Ahaz · All the kings of Israel and Judah