Shishak Comes Up Against Jerusalem
1When Rehoboam’s kingship was secure and he had grown strong, he abandoned the law of Yahweh — and all Israel with him. 2In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt marched on Jerusalem, because they had been unfaithful to Yahweh. 3He came with a thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and the troops who came with him out of Egypt were past counting: Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites. 4He captured the fortified towns of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. 5Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the officers of Judah, who had gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “This is what Yahweh says: You abandoned me, so I in my turn have abandoned you into the hand of Shishak.” 6The officers of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “Yahweh is in the right.” 7Seeing that they had humbled themselves, Yahweh sent his word to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them. Before long I will grant them a deliverance, and my fury will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. 8They will, however, 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 marched on Jerusalem and carried off the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the treasures of the royal palace. He took it all, including the golden shields Solomon had made. 10In their place King Rehoboam made bronze shields, and put them in the charge of the officers of the guard who watched the entrance of the royal palace. 11Whenever the king went to the house of Yahweh, the guard would come and carry the shields, and then take them back to the guardroom. 12Because he humbled himself, the anger of Yahweh turned away from him and he was not destroyed utterly; and in Judah, too, some good was found. 13So King Rehoboam made his position firm in Jerusalem and went on reigning. He was forty-one when he came to the throne, and he was king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. 14He did what was evil, for he had not set his heart on seeking Yahweh. 15Rehoboam’s acts, from first to last — are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, arranged by genealogy? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. 16Rehoboam lay down with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, and Abijah his son became king in his place.
