Chapter 12

Rehoboam’s Unfaithfulness. ¹ After Rehoboam’s kingdom was firmly established and he grew ever more powerful, he, and all Israel^[a] with him, abandoned the law of the Lord. ² In the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam, because he and his people had been unfaithful to the Lord, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem^{[b] 3} with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. In addition, he also brought with him from Egypt a vast army beyond counting—Libyans, Sukkites,^[c] and Ethiopians.

⁴ After Shishak had captured the fortified cities of Judah and had arrived at the outskirts of Jerusalem, ⁵ the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and the commanders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them: “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have abandoned me, and therefore I have abandoned you to the power of Shishak.’ ” ⁶ Then the officers of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said: “The Lord is just.”

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Because they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them. Rather, I will grant them some degree of deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸ However, they shall become his servants, so that they may come to understand the difference between serving me and serving the rulers of other countries.”

⁹ Therefore, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem and carried away the treasures of the house of the Lord as well as the treasures of the king’s palace. He seized everything, including the shields of gold that Solomon had made. ¹⁰ Therefore, King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and entrusted them to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance of the king’s palace.

¹¹ Whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards would accompany him, bearing the shield and then afterward would return them to the guardroom. ¹² Because Rehoboam had humbled himself, the anger of the Lord was averted from him so as not to destroy him completely, and the conditions in Judah continued to improve.

¹³ Therefore, King Rehoboam strengthened his power in Jerusalem and continued to reign. He was forty-one years old when he first ascended the throne, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which, out of all the tribes of Israel, the Lord chose to be honored. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonite. ¹⁴ However, he followed an evil path, for he had not truly resolved to seek the Lord.

¹⁵ The events of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer. There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ¹⁶ Rehoboam slept with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah succeeded him as king.