2 Chronicles 12

Shishak Attacks Jerusalem

12:9–16pp—1Ki 14:21, 25–31

12After Rehoboam’s position as king was established^e and he had become strong,^f he and all Israel^ag with him abandoned^h the law of the Lord. ²Because they had been unfaithfulⁱ to the Lord, Shishak^j king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. ³With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans,^k Sukkites and Cushites^bl that came with him from Egypt, ⁴he captured the fortified cities^m of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then the prophet Shemaiahⁿ came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon^o you to Shishak.’ ”

⁶The leaders of Israel and the king humbled^p themselves and said, “The Lord is just.”^q

⁷When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance.^r My wrath^s will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. ⁸They will, however, become subject^t to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.”

⁹When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields^u Solomon had made. ¹⁰So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. ¹¹Whenever the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.

¹²Because Rehoboam humbled^v himself, the Lord’s anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good^w in Judah.

¹³King Rehoboam established^x himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name.^y His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. ¹⁴He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.

¹⁵As for the events of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah^z the prophet and of Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ¹⁶Rehoboam^a rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. And Abijah^b his son succeeded him as king.