2 Chronicles 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~925 BC, the fifth year of Rehoboam, in the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I
Location
Jerusalem, under siege conditions, with Egyptian forces sweeping through the towns of Judah
Audience
Post-exilic Judeans who knew what it was to see the temple stripped by a foreign power
Situation
Once established, Rehoboam abandons God's law and Shishak of Egypt invades with a large army, taking the fortified cities. When the king and his officials humble themselves at Shemaiah's word, Jerusalem is spared destruction but Shishak strips the temple and palace treasures, and Rehoboam replaces Solomon's gold shields with bronze.
Key Background
Shishak is Shoshenq the First, founder of Egypt's twenty-second dynasty, and his campaign is independently recorded on a wall at the temple of Amun at Karnak, listing towns he captured, one of the firmest points where the biblical narrative touches outside evidence. Egypt had been weak for generations, and this raid was an attempt to reassert influence over the trade corridor through Canaan while Israel and Judah were freshly divided and weakened. The swap of gold shields for bronze is the writer's compact image of a kingdom's decline, since the ceremonial shields were carried by the royal guard whenever the king went up to the temple and everyone in Jerusalem would have seen the downgrade.
Once Rehoboam had established his kingdom and felt secure, he abandoned the of — and all of Israel with him.
In the fifth year of King Rehoboam's reign, king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem — because they had been to Yahweh.
He came with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand cavalry, and an uncountable army of Sukkites, and from Egypt.
He captured the of Judah and advanced all the way to Jerusalem.
Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak. He told them, "This is what Yahweh says: You me, so now you to Shishak."
The leaders of Israel and the king and said, is to do this."
When Yahweh saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah: "They've humbled themselves, so I won't destroy them. I'll grant them some of and my won't be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.
But they will become his — so they learn the me and the of other nations."
So Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He seized the treasures of and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything — including the Solomon had made.
King Rehoboam replaced them with and assigned them to the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace.
Whenever the king went to Yahweh's Temple, the guards would carry the shields, then return them to the guardroom afterward.
Because Rehoboam Yahweh's anger turned away from him, and he wasn't completely destroyed. In fact, in Judah.
King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued to reign. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem — the city Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel as the place to mother's name was from
He did what was because he on Yahweh.
The events of Rehoboam's reign, from beginning to end — aren't they written in the of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the arranged as genealogies? There was constant warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
Then Rehoboam with and was buried in the of son Abijah became king in place.