Study

Egypt Attacks Judah

12

When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he grew strong, he abandoned the law of the L ord, he and all Israel with him. ²In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to the L ord, King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem ³with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand cavalry. A countless army came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians. ⁴He took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. ⁵Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the officers of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the L ord: You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.” ⁶Then the officers of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The L ord is in the right.” ⁷When the L ord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the L ord came to Shemaiah, saying: “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸Nevertheless they shall be his servants, so that they may know the difference between serving me and serving the kingdoms of other lands.”

⁹ So King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; he took away the treasures of the house of the L ord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made; ¹⁰but King Rehoboam made in place of them shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. ¹¹Whenever the king went into the house of the L ord, the guard would come along bearing them, and would then bring them back to the guardroom. ¹²Because he humbled himself the wrath of the L ord turned from him, so as not to destroy them completely; moreover, conditions were good in Judah.

Death of Rehoboam

¹³ So King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the L ord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ¹⁴He did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the L ord.

¹⁵ Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the records of the prophet Shemaiah and of the seer Iddo, recorded by genealogy? There were continual wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ¹⁶Rehoboam slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David; and his son Abijah succeeded him.