the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Bible Encyclopedias
Jotham
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Jo′tham, (God is upright), the youngest of Gideon's seventy legitimate sons; and the only one who escaped when the rest were massacred by the order of Abimelech. When the fratricide was made king by the people of Shechem, the young Jotham was so daring as to make his appearance on Mount Gerizim for the purpose of lifting up a protesting voice, and of giving vent to his feelings. This he did in a beautiful parable, wherein the trees are represented as making choice of a king, and bestowing on the bramble the honor which the cedar, the olive, and the vine would not accept. The obvious application, which indeed Jotham failed not himself to point out, must have been highly exasperating to Abimelech and his friends; but the speaker fled, as soon as he had delivered his parable, to the town of Beer, and remained there out of his brother's reach. We hear no more of him; but three years after, if then living, he saw the accomplishment of the malediction he had pronounced ().
Jotham, 2
Jotham, tenth king of Judah, and son of Uzziah, whom he succeeded in B.C. 758, at the age of twenty-five: he reigned sixteen years. His father having during his last years been excluded by leprosy from public life [UZZIAH], the government was administered by his son. Jotham profited by the experience which the reign of his father, and of the kings who preceded him, of forded, and he ruled in the fear of God, although he was unable to correct all the corrupt practices into which the people had fallen. His sincere intentions were rewarded with a prosperous reign. He was successful in his wars. The Ammonites, who had 'given gifts' as a sort of tribute to Uzziah, but had ceased to do so after his leprosy had incapacitated him from governing, were constrained by Jotham to pay for three years a heavy tribute in silver, wheat, and barley (; ). Many important public works were also undertaken and accomplished by Jotham. The principal gate of the temple was rebuilt by him on a more magnificent scale; the quarter of Ophel, in Jerusalem, was strengthened by new fortifications; various towns were built or rebuilt in the mountains of Judah; and castles and towers of defense were erected in the wilderness. Jotham died greatly lamented by his people, and was buried in the sepulcher of the kings (; ).
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Jotham'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/j/jotham.html.
