12After Rehoboam’s kingdom was set up and he became strong, he and the people of Judah stopped obeying the teachings of the Lord. ²During the fifth year Rehoboam was king, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, because Rehoboam and the people were unfaithful to the Lord. ³Shishak had twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. He brought troops of Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites from Egypt with him, so many they couldn’t be counted. ⁴Shishak captured the strong, walled cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered in Jerusalem because they were afraid of Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have left me, so now I will leave you to face Shishak alone.’ ”

⁶Then the leaders of Judah and King Rehoboam were sorry for what they had done. They said, “The Lord does what is right.”

⁷When the Lord saw they were sorry for what they had done, the Lord spoke his word to Shemaiah, saying, “The king and the leaders are sorry. So I will not destroy them but will save them soon. I will not use Shishak to punish Jerusalem in my anger. ⁸But the people of Jerusalem will become Shishak’s servants so they may learn that serving me is different than serving the kings of other nations.”

⁹Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ¹⁰So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to take their place and gave them to the commanders of the guards for the palace gates. ¹¹Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards went with him, carrying the shields. Later, they would put them back in the guardroom.

¹²When Rehoboam was sorry for what he had done, the Lord held his anger back and did not fully destroy Rehoboam. There was some good in Judah.

¹³King Rehoboam made himself a strong king in Jerusalem. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for seventeen years. Jerusalem is the city that the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel in which he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah from the country of Ammon. ¹⁴Rehoboam did evil because he did not want to obey the Lord.

¹⁵The things Rehoboam did as king, from the beginning to the end, are written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer, in the family histories. There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time they ruled. ¹⁶Rehoboam died and was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Abijah became king in his place.

Abijah King of Judah

13Abijah became the king of Judah during the eighteenth year Jeroboam was king of Israel. ²Abijah ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Uriel from the town of Gibeah.

And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³Abijah led an army of four hundred thousand capable soldiers into battle, and Jeroboam prepared to fight him with eight hundred thousand capable soldiers.

⁴Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the mountains of Ephraim and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! ⁵You should know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave David and his sons the right to rule Israel forever by an agreement of salt. ⁶But Jeroboam son of Nebat, one of the officers of Solomon, David’s son, turned against his master. ⁷Then worthless, evil men joined Jeroboam against Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. He was young and didn’t know what to do, so he could not stop them.

⁸“Now you people are making plans against the Lord’s kingdom, which belongs to David’s sons. There are many of you, and you have the gold calves Jeroboam made for you as gods. ⁹You have thrown out the Levites and the Lord’s priests, Aaron’s sons. You have chosen your own priests as people in other countries do. Anyone who comes with a young bull and seven male sheep can become a priest of idols that are not gods.

¹⁰“But as for us, the Lord is our God; we have not left him. The priests who serve the Lord are Aaron’s sons, and the Levites help them. ¹¹They offer burnt offerings and sweet-smelling incense to the Lord every morning and evening. They put the bread on the special table in the Temple. And they light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. We obey the command of the Lord our God, but you have left him. ¹²God himself is with us as our ruler. His priests blow the trumpet to call us to war against you. Men of Israel, don’t fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors, because you won’t succeed.”

¹³But Jeroboam had sent some troops to sneak behind Judah’s army. So while Jeroboam was in front of Judah’s army, Jeroboam’s soldiers were behind them. ¹⁴When the soldiers of Judah turned around, they saw Jeroboam’s army attacking both in front and back. So they cried out to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets. ¹⁵Then the men of Judah gave a battle cry. When they shouted, God caused Jeroboam and the army of Israel to run away from Abijah and the army of Judah. ¹⁶When the army of Israel ran away from the men of Judah, God handed them over to Judah. ¹⁷Abijah’s army struck Israel so that five hundred thousand of Israel’s best men were killed. ¹⁸So at that time the people of Israel were defeated. And the people of Judah won, because they depended on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹Abijah’s army chased Jeroboam’s army and captured from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, and the small villages near them. ²⁰Jeroboam never became strong again while Abijah was alive. The Lord struck Jeroboam, and he died.

²¹But Abijah became strong. He married fourteen women and was the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²²Everything else Abijah did—what he said and what he did—is recorded in the writings of the prophet Iddo.

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