Jotham and Ahaz of Judah: The kingdom of Judah has been going through hard times. Its royal house has seen three of the last four kings assassinated, and the fourth lay aside power because of illness. Things are not about to improve.

15:32–38  Jotham has already been exercising power in Judah because of his father’s illness (15:5), but now he becomes king in his own right. He is a relatively good (non-idolatrous) king, doing right in the eyes of the LORD, though like his father rather than like David (cf. the commentary on 14:3) and still failing to centralize worship of the LORD in Jerusalem. It is he who rebuilds the Upper Gate of the temple (cf. Ezek. 9:2), presumably damaged in the course of Jehoash’s incursion into Jerusalem in 14:13–14. He is no stranger to trouble on his northern bor…