Joatham

Joatham ( Heb. יוֹתָם , Yotam - “God is perfect”), the son of Uzia , is the king of Judah .

The reign of Jotham was the beginning of the activity of the prophet Isaiah , who generally treated him well, considering him a pious king. Jotham supported the Temple of Jerusalem with its institutions and took care of raising the religious and moral condition of the people. The prophets Oshaiya and Micah also spoke with him, who contributed to the well-being of the kingdom (2 Kings 15: 30–38; 2 Chronicles, chapters 26 and 27).

Jotham conducted a successful military campaign against Ammon . He spent a lot of effort on strengthening the country's defense capabilities. The foreign policy situation was alarming, the Assyrian threat became more real than ever. Israel and the Damascus kingdom formed an anti-Assyrian coalition and certainly wanted to see Judea among their allies. Joatham categorically refused to participate in the coalition, which caused great irritation to the Israeli king Menachem and the Aramaic king Recip (740-732 BC).

Jotham reigned relatively safely for 16 years.

In 1940, during archaeological excavations by the American archaeologist Nelson Gluck, an imprint of the seal of the Jewish king Yotam was found in the ancient biblical city of Etzion Hever, near the modern Israeli city of Eilat .