2 Chronicles 26:16

Uzziah is described as at first having been righteous, and then it is related that he was lifted up in mind and dared to offer sacrifice to God himself, and his face became leprous in consequence. But Josephus carefully studied the additional comments of the expounders as well, and a Hebrew of the Hebrews as he was, hear his description of the events of those times. He tells: "Though the priests urged Uzziah to go out of the temple and not to break the law of God, he angrily threatened them with death unless they held their peace. And meanwhile an earthquake shook the earth, and a bright light shone through a breach in the temple and struck the king's face, so that at once it became leprous. And before the city at the place called Eroga, the western half of the Mount was split asunder and rolling four stadia stopped at the eastern mountain, so as to block up the royal approach and gardens." This I take from the work of Josephus on Jewish antiquities. And I found in the beginning of the prophet Amos the statement that he began to prophecy "in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, two years before the earthquake." What earthquake he does not clearly say. But I think the same prophet further on suggests this earthquake when he says, "I saw the Lord standing on the altar. And he said, Strike the altar, and the doors shall be shaken, and strike the heads of all, and the remnant I will slay with the sword."Here I understand a prediction of the earthquake, and of the destruction of the ancient solemnities of the Jewish race and of the worship practiced by them in Jerusalem, the ruin that should overtake them after the coming of our Savior, when, since they rejected the Christ of God, the true High Priest, leprosy infected their souls, as in the days of Uzziah, when the Lord himself standing on the altar gave leave to him that struck, saying, "Strike the altar."

None of all his predecessors, not the best, not the worst, attempted it. The law, he knew, was express against him, and there was no usage or precedent for him. He could not pretend any necessity, as there was for David's eating the show-bread.

But we find not Uzziah charged with any of these; and yet he transgressed against the Lord his God, and fell under the marks of his displeasure in consequence, not, as other kings, in vexatious wars or rebellions, but an incurable disease. His sin was invading the priest's office. The good way is one; by-paths are many.

When he was strong,....

He transgressed against the Lord - “He sinned against the Word of the Lord his God.” - T. Went into the temple to burn incense - Thus assuming to himself the priest’s office. See this whole transaction explained in the notes on 2Ki 15:5 (note).

he transgressed against the Lord, &c.--(See on 2Ki 15:5). This daring and wicked act is in both records traced to the intoxicating influence of overweening pride and vanity. But here the additional circumstances are stated, that his entrance was opposed, and strong remonstrances made (1Ch 6:10) by the high priest, who was accompanied by eighty inferior priests.

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To his destruction - Rather, “to do wickedly.” Uzziah appears to have deliberately determined to invade the priest’s office (marginal reference “m”), thus repeating the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram Num. 16:1-35.