A Technician Looks at King Uzziah’s Reign and His Superweapons!

In the same way that W. Phillip Keller, having been a shepherd, wrote about Psalm 23 and other Scriptures through the eyes of a shepherd, I plan to write a series of blog articles on various Scriptures through the eyes of a technician, having been a “techie” for all of my life. They may not be as spiritually centered as Keller’s writings, but hopefully will explain some things people either totally miss or misinterpret.

A Technician Looks at Uzziah’s Reign

and His Superweapons!

Uzziah is believed to have reigned either from 725 to 697 BC or 715 BC to 687 BC. He ascended to the throne at the age of 16.

His father, Amaziah, had obeyed God at first, but after defeating the Edomites he brought home their idols and worshiped them, then arrogantly challenged the king of Israel to battle. He lost, Jerusalem was plundered, and he was taken prisoner but later released. His own people formed a plot against him and he fled to Lachish where he held out for 16 years before being assassinated. His son, Uzziah, reigned during those 16 years.

Uzziah, like his father, concentrated on building military power. He had many victories against the Philistines and engaged in a national rebuilding program. His father had had an army of 300,000 men and Uzziah’s somewhat exceeded that. He built towers along the walls of Jerusalem. The key verses I want to look at are these:

2Ch 26:13 – 15:

And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.

Uzziah conquered into Syria and pushed back Israel, but he became proud and tried infringing on the office of priest by offering incense in the Temple, despite being warned off by over 80 priests! Supposedly this is when the great earthquake took place and is certainly when he became a leper. From that time on he had to dwell in a house by himself and his son Jotham co-ruled with him. After his death Jotham ruled for 16 years, did a lot of building, probably rebuilding from the earthquake that devastated the region, defeated the Ammonites, and generally did well as king.

There are two technical concepts here that are interesting. One is the earthquake. From archaeological evidence, they have rated the earthquake as an 8.2 magnitude, probably centered under Lebanon. They date it as being in the last third of Uzziah’s reign, but then give the date as 760 BC – at least 20 years before he was born according to other sources. Dating is a controversial matter, with archaeologists often using very different dates than geologists and that carbon dating indicates. There is also some evidence there were two earthquakes during this time period. But dating aside, there is no doubt there was a massive earthquake sometime during this period.

The second and even more interesting point is given in verse 15: And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal

This verse appears to describe ballistae, which supposedly were first developed by unknown engineers for Dionysius of Syracuse around 400 BC and could throw either stones or javelins. They were usually used as siege engines, but in Uzziah’s case seem to have been used for defense against sieges! In any case, this is nearly 300 years before Dionysius! They could also have been a form of trebuchet, but the dating problem is the same. Whatever they were, Uzziah had them hundreds of years before either the Greeks or Chinese are recorded as having them. So who were the “cunning men” that invented them for Uzziah? Men of Judah, or from somewhere else? Who had the technical expertise to design them at that time?