Top of Page
Page Style
Rehoboam had established his position as king and he grew strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord,—he and all Israel with him. 2 Then because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, in the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem 3 with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and countless troops from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians. 4 He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
5 Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had gathered together at Jerusalem because of Shishak. He said to them, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have abandoned Me; therefore I have abandoned you into the hand of Shishak’.”
6 So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”
7 When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. 8 However, they will become his servants, so that they may learn the difference between serving Me and serving the kingdoms of other lands.”
9 So Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, and he carried off the treasures of the House of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made. 10 So King Reboboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the captains of the guard, who guarded the entrance of the king’s palace. 11 Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards went with him, taking the shields also and then returning them to the guardroom afterward.
12 Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned away from him so he was not destroyed completely. Indeed, afterward conditions were good in Judah.
13 So King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Judah and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel toput His Name. Rehoboam’s mother was named Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 14 Rehoboam did what was evil, for he did not set his heart on seeking the Lord.
15 As for the events of the reign of Rehoboam, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? There was war continually between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 16 Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. Then his son Abijah succeeded him as king.