Shishak of Egypt Invades Judah

1When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the Law of the LORD. 2And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem 3with 1,200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were innumerable: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. 4And he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. 5Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have abandoned Me, so I also have abandoned you [a]to Shishak.’” 6So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”

7When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them; and I will grant them a little deliverance, and My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak. 8But they will become his slaves, so that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”

Plunder Impoverishes Judah

9So Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem, and he took the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s palace. He took everything; he even took the gold shields which Solomon had made. 10Then King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them to the [b]care of the commanders of the [c]guards who guarded the entrance of the king’s house. 11As often as the king entered the house of the LORD, the [d]guards came and carried them and then brought them back into the [e]guards’ room. 12And when he humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned away from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and conditions were also good in Judah.

13So King Rehoboam became powerful in Jerusalem and reigned there. For Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 14But he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.

15Now the acts of Rehoboam, from the first to the last, are they not written in the [f]records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, according to genealogical enrollment? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. 16And Rehoboam [g]lay down with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; and his son Abijah became king in his place.