OZIAS (Azarias; Heb. 'Uzzijjah). - Tenth king of Judah after the schism of the northern tribes. He succeeded his father Amaziah (v.) at the age of sixteen, and reigned a little more than 30 years (presumably 769-738 or 737 B.C.). In II Kings 14:21; 15:1-7 he is also called Azariah; but the name U. is more frequent (ibid. 15:13, 30-34; II Chron. 26; Is. 6:1 and other prophets; Mt. 1:8).
The entire chapter II Chron. 26 describes the reign of U. as one of the most flourishing and fortunate in the history of Judah.
He reconquered and rebuilt the port of Elath, an important commercial center on the Gulf of Elan (II Kings 14:22; II Chron. 26:2), after having brought back under subjection the Edomites, who had rebelled under the reign of Amaziah (v.) (II Kings 14:7). He conducted other successful campaigns against the Moabites, Philistines, Arabs and Ammonites (II Chron. 26:6-8). A contemporary of King Jeroboam II (v.), he maintained friendly relations with the Kingdom of Israel. He strengthened Jerusalem with strongly fortified walls, and fortified other centers of the country. He organized a strong army, under the orders of able captains such as Maaseiah and Hananiah (II Chron. 26:9-15).
He promoted agriculture with important land-reclamation works, especially in the sectors of sheep-rearing and viticulture, so as to merit the praise of the chronicler: "he loved the soil" (ibid. 26:10). In this way, thanks also to the reactivated trade with the Red Sea through the reconquest of the port of Elath, the kingdom of Judah reached a high degree of prosperity to which Is. 2:7 ff. seems to allude.
His successes, at home and abroad, were the reward of his zeal for the worship of Yahweh, in which he had been educated by his mother Jecholiah and by a prophet named Zechariah, who was his trusted counselor for many years (II Chron. 29:3, 5). "As long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper" (ibid. 26:5). The worship on the high places (bāmāth), however, was not uprooted (II Kings 15:3-4).
In his last years, puffed up with pride over his power, he wished to intrude into the functions strictly belonging to the priesthood and to penetrate into the interior of the sanctuary to burn incense on the altar of incense: he was instantly struck with leprosy, which forced him in his last years to segregate himself from the court and from affairs (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Jud., IX, 10, 4, considerably amplifies and dramatizes the account of II Chron. 26:16 ff.). For this reason his son Jotham took over the administration; he was associated with his father in the kingdom for the remaining 11 (or 13) years, and reigned alone, after the death of U., for another 5 (or 3) years (II Kings 15:5).
The prophets Isaiah (6:1), Hosea (1:1) and Amos (1:1) were contemporaries of this king: the first began his prophetic ministry in the very year of U.'s death (Is. 6:1): very probably in the first chapters (ibid. 2-5) he alludes to the social conditions of the nation under this king (material prosperity of some, misery of others, moral decadence). Amos (1:1) and Zechariah (14:5) mention a famous earthquake that occurred in the time of U. king of Judah and of Jeroboam II king of Israel, of which, however, there is no other record.
It does not seem that U. (or Azariah) king of Judah is to be identified (as was at first admitted also by some Catholics, e.g., A. Deimel, O. Hellmann, etc.) with a certain Azrijahu of Ja'hudi, who occurs in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, defeated by this Assyrian king and made tributary together with Menahem of Samaria and Rezin of Damascus: most hold that it is a question of a namesake king of a small state of northern Syria, mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions of Zenjirli discovered in 1902.
Bibliography9 works
Gaetano Stano
Ozio - The Idler, painting by M. Cammarano (late 19th century) - Naples, Pinacoteca di Capodimonte.
UZZIAH - Son of Micha, of the tribe of Simeon, the chief of the three governors of Bethulia (v.) at the time of the siege and liberation of that city (Jdt. 6:15 ff.). He received kindly Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, who had been dismissed from Holofernes' army, and from him learned of the Assyrian commander's decisions regarding Bethulia. Yielding to the pressure of the people, Uzziah was already on the point of opening the gates to the enemy; but he waited another 5 days: the courageous intervention of Judith (v.) saved the situation (ibid. 8-13).
After the killing of Holofernes, U. went out to meet the heroic woman, to whom, in the name of all the people, he addressed fervent words of gratitude and blessing, which have remained famous (ibid. 13:18-20: the passage, very fittingly applied to the Madonna, is read almost verbatim in the place of the Epistle in the Mass of the two feasts of the Seven Sorrows and in the new Mass of the Assumption). Finally he urged the Israelites to pursue the fleeing enemy (ibid. 15:4 ff.).