1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for sixteen years. Jerushah his mother was the daughter of Zadok.
2 Jotham obeyed the Lord and did right. He followed the example of his father Uzziah, except he never burnt incense in the temple as his father had done. But the people of Judah kept sinning against the Lord.
3 Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple and did a lot of work to repair the wall near Mount Ophel.
4 He built towns in the mountains of Judah and built fortresses and defence towers in the forests.
5 During his rule he attacked and defeated the Ammonites. Then every year for the next three years, he forced them to pay three thousand four hundred kilogrammes of silver, one thousand tonnes of wheat, and one thousand tonnes of barley.
6 Jotham remained faithful to the Lord his God and became a very powerful king.