32 In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The writer here resumes the history of Judah from 2-Kings 15:7, to resume and conclude the history of Israel in 2 Kings 17.
In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah king of Israel, began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign. Pekah began to reign in the fifty second year of Azariah, or Uzziah, which was his last year, 2-Kings 15:27, and which was the first of Pekah; Uzziah reigned full fifty two, and then Jotham succeeded, which was the beginning of the second of Pekah.
Jotham showed great respect to the temple. If magistrates cannot do all they would, for the suppressing of vice and profaneness, let them do the more to support and advance piety and virtue.
Reign of Jotham of Judah (cf. 2-Chronicles 27:1-9). - 2-Kings 15:32. "In the second year of Pekah Jotham began to reign." This agrees with the statement in 2-Kings 15:27, that Pekah became king in the last year of Uzziah, supposing that it occurred at the commencement of the year. Jotham's sixteen years therefore came to a close in the seventeenth year of Pekah's reign (2-Kings 16:1). His reign was like that of his father Uzziah (compare 2-Kings 15:34, 2-Kings 15:35 with 2-Kings 15:3, 2-Kings 15:4), except, as is added in Chr. 2-Kings 15:2, that he did not force himself into the temple of the Lord, as Uzziah had done (2-Chronicles 26:16). All that is mentioned of his enterprises in the account before us is that he built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah, that is to say, that he restored it, or perhaps added to its beauty. The upper gate, according to Ezekiel 9:2 compared with 2-Kings 8:3, 2-Kings 8:5,2-Kings 8:14 and 2-Kings 8:16, is the gate at the north side of the inner or upper court, where all the sacrifices were slaughtered, according to Ezekiel 40:38-43. We also find from 2-Chronicles 27:3. that he built against the wall of Ophel, and several cities in the mountains of Judah, and castles and towers in the forests, and subdued the Ammonites, so that they paid him tribute for three years. Jotham carried on with great vigour, therefore, the work which his father had began, to increase the material prosperity of his subjects.
*More commentary available at chapter level.