[1] When the rule of Rehobo'am was established and was strong, he forsook
the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him. [2] In the fifth year of King
Rehobo'am, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of
Egypt came up against Jerusalem [3] with twelve hundred chariots and sixty
thousand horsemen. And the people were without number who came with him
from Egypt--Libyans, Suk'ki-im, and Ethiopians. [4] And he took the
fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. [5] Then Shemai'ah
the prophet came to Rehobo'am and to the princes of Judah, who had gathered
at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, "Thus says the LORD,
`You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.'" [6]
Then the princes 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 Shemai'ah: "They have humbled themselves; I will
not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath
shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. [8]
Nevertheless they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service
and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." [9] So Shishak king of
Egypt came up against Jerusalem; he took away the treasures of the house of
the LORD and the treasures of the king's house; he took away everything. He
also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made; [10] and King
Rehobo'am made in their stead shields of bronze, and committed them to the
hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.
[11] And as often as the king went into the house of the LORD, the guard
came and bore them, and brought them back to the guardroom. [12] And when
he humbled himself the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so as not to make
a complete destruction; moreover, conditions were good in Judah. [13] So
King Rehobo'am established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehobo'am was
forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years
in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of
Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Na'amah the Ammonitess.
[14] And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the LORD. [15]
Now the acts of Rehobo'am, from first to last, are they not written in the
chronicles of Shemai'ah the prophet and of Iddo the seer? There were
continual wars between Rehobo'am and Jerobo'am. [16] And Rehobo'am slept
with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David; and Abi'jah his son
reigned in his stead.
