2 Chronicles 27 New English Translation

Jotham’s Reign

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. ²He 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.

³He built the Upper Gate to the Lord’s temple and did a lot of work on the wall in the area known as Ophel.^[d] ⁴He built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.

⁵He launched a military campaign^[e] against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites paid him 100 talents^[f] of silver, 10,000 cors^[g] of wheat, and 10,000 cors^[h] of barley. The Ammonites also paid this same amount of annual tribute the next two years.^[i]

⁶Jotham grew powerful because he was determined to please the Lord his God.^[j] ⁷The rest of the events of Jotham’s reign, including all his military campaigns and his accomplishments, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel and Judah.^[k] ⁸He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹Jotham passed away^[l] and was buried in the City of David.^[m] His son Ahaz replaced him as king.

Footnotes

2 Chronicles 27:1 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
2 Chronicles 27:2 tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, according to all which Uzziah his father had done.”
2 Chronicles 27:2 tn Heb “except he did not enter the house of the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 27:3 tn Heb “wall of Ophel.” See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.
2 Chronicles 27:5 tn Heb “he fought with.”
2 Chronicles 27:5 tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).
2 Chronicles 27:5 sn As a unit of dry measure a cor was roughly equivalent to six bushels (about 220 liters).
2 Chronicles 27:5 tn Heb “10,000 cors of wheat and 10,000 of barley.” The unit of measure of the barley is omitted in the Hebrew text, but is understood to be “cors,” the same as the measures of wheat.
2 Chronicles 27:5 tn Heb “This the sons of Ammon brought to him, and in the second year and the third.”
2 Chronicles 27:6 tn Heb “because he established his ways before the Lord his God.”
2 Chronicles 27:7 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jotham, and his battles and his ways, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.”
2 Chronicles 27:9 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
2 Chronicles 27:9 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.

New English Translation (NET)