2 Chronicles 12

Egypt Attacks Judah

12Now ^ait came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that ^bhe forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel along with him. ^2cAnd it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, ³with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number who came with him out of Egypt—^dthe Lubim and the Sukkiim and the Ethiopians. ⁴And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came to Jerusalem.

⁵Then ^eShemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have forsaken Me, and therefore I also have left you in the hand of Shishak.’ ”

⁶So the leaders of Israel and the king ^fhumbled themselves; and they said, ^g“The Lord is righteous.”

⁷Now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, ^hthe word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸Nevertheless ⁱthey will be his servants, that they may distinguish ^jMy service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.”

^9kSo Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had ^lmade. ¹⁰Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them ^mto the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ¹¹And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guard would go and bring them out; then they would take them back into the guardroom. ¹²When he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and things also went well in Judah.

The End of Rehoboam’s Reign

¹³Thus King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now ⁿRehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^othe city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an ^pAmmonitess. ¹⁴And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.

¹⁵The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, ^qand of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? ^rAnd there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ¹⁶So Rehoboam ¹rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. Then ^sAbijah ²his son reigned in his place.