2 Chroniques 12

Shishak invades Judah

¹When Rehoboam’s kingdom was firmly established and he had become strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him.

²In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had broken faith with the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, ³with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, and troops beyond counting came with him from Egypt: Libyans, Sukkiim and Cushites.^{a 4}He took the fortified cities belonging to Judah and advanced as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the officials of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and said to them, “The LORD says this: You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to Shishak.” ⁶Then the officials of Israel and the king humbled themselves. “The LORD is righteous,” they said. ⁷When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, a word from the LORD came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them. I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.^{b 8}Yet they will become his servants, so that they may learn what it is to serve me and what it is to serve the kingdoms of other lands.”

⁹So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the house of the LORD and those of the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ¹⁰King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and entrusted them to the commanders of the guard who kept watch at the entrance of the king’s palace. ¹¹Whenever the king went into the house of the LORD, the guards came and carried the shields, and afterward they brought them back to the guardroom. ¹²Because he humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned back from him and did not destroy him completely. And there were also good things in Judah.^c

The end of Rehoboam’s reign

¹³King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from among all the tribes of Israel as the place for his name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ¹⁴He did what was evil, because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.

¹⁵The acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, in the genealogical records. There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.^{d 16}Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah became king in his place.