Jotham
Jehovah is perfect. (1.) The youngest of Gideon's seventy sons.
He escaped when the rest were put to death by the order of
Abimelech (Judg. 9:5). When "the citizens of Shechem and the
whole house of Millo" were gathered together "by the plain of
the pillar" (i.e., the stone set up by Joshua, 24:26; comp. Gen.
35:4) "that was in Shechem, to make Abimelech king," from one of
the heights of Mount Gerizim he protested against their doing so
in the earliest parable, that of the bramble-king. His words
then spoken were prophetic. There came a recoil in the feelings
of the people toward Abimelech, and then a terrible revenge, in
which many were slain and the city of Shechem was destroyed by
Abimelech (Judg. 9:45). Having delivered his warning, Jotham
fled to Beer from the vengeance of Abimelech (9:7-21).
(2.) The son and successor of Uzziah on the throne of Judah.
As during his last years Uzziah was excluded from public life on
account of his leprosy, his son, then twenty-five years of age,
administered for seven years the affairs of the kingdom in his
father's stead (2 Chr. 26:21, 23; 27:1). After his father's
death he became sole monarch, and reigned for sixteen years
(B.C. 759-743). He ruled in the fear of God, and his reign was
prosperous. He was contemporary with the prophets Isaiah, Hosea,
and Micah, by whose ministrations he profited. He was buried in
the sepulchre of the kings, greatly lamented by the people (2
Kings 15:38; 2 Chr. 27:7-9).
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