1 And when the kingdom of Rehoboam had been strengthened and fortified, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all of Israel with him.
2 Then, in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, ascended against Jerusalem (for they had sinned against the Lord)
3 with one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the common people could not be numbered who had arrived with him from Egypt, namely, the Libyans, and the Troglodytes, and the Ethiopians.
4 And he seized the most fortified cities in Judah, and he went even to Jerusalem.
5 Then Shemaiah, the prophet, entered to Rehoboam, and to the leaders of Judah who had gathered together in Jerusalem while fleeing from Shishak, and he said to them: “Thus says the Lord: You have abandoned me, and so I have abandoned you into the hand of Shishak.”
6 And the leaders of Israel, and the king, being in consternation, said, “The Lord is just.”
7 And when the Lord had seen that they were humbled, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying: “Because they have been humbled, I will not disperse them. And I will give to them a little help, and my fury will not rain down upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
8 Yet truly, they shall serve him, so that they may know the difference between my servitude, and the servitude of a kingdom of the lands.”
9 And so Shishak, the king of Egypt, withdrew from Jerusalem, taking up the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the house of the king. And he took away everything with him, even the gold shields that Solomon had made.
10 In place of these, the king made bronze ones, and he delivered them to the leaders of the shield bearers, who were guarding the vestibule of the palace.
11 And when the king would enter into the house of the Lord, the shield bearers would arrive and take them, and they would carry them back to their armory.
12 Yet truly, because they were humbled, the wrath of the Lord turned away from them, and so they were not utterly destroyed. And indeed, good works were also found in Judah.
13 Therefore, king Rehoboam was strengthened in Jerusalem, and he reigned. He was forty-one years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel, so that he might confirm his name there. Now the name of his mother was Naamah, an Ammonite.
14 But he did evil, and he did not prepare his heart so as to seek the Lord.
15 Truly, the works of Rehoboam, the first and the last, have been written in the books of Shemaiah, the prophet, and of Iddo, the seer, and diligently set forth. And Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought against one another during all their days.
16 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the City of David. And his son, Abijah, reigned in his place. |
