2 Chronicles
Summary
When Rehoboam’s kingdom is established and strong, he and all Israel with him forsake the Law of the LORD. In response, God permits Shishak king of Egypt to invade Judah with a vast army, capturing the fortified cities and reaching the gates of Jerusalem. After the king and the leaders humble themselves in repentance at the warning of the prophet Shemaiah, God spares them from complete destruction but allows the treasures of the Temple to be taken as a consequence of their unfaithfulness. Rehoboam’s reign ends after seventeen years, marked by both his periodic humility and his ultimate failure to set his heart to seek the LORD.
Now it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him.
And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD,
with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number who came with him out of Egypt, the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians.
And he took the fortified cities which belonged to Judah and came to Jerusalem.
Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, "Thus says the LORD: 'You have forsaken Me, and therefore I also have left you in the hand of Shishak.' "
So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, "The LORD is righteous."
Now when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, "They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may distinguish My service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations."
So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had made.
Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the entrance to the king’s house.
And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guard would go and fetch them; then they would take them back into the guardroom.
When he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and things went well in Judah.
So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now Rehoboam 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 Naamah, an Ammonitess.
And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD.
The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. Then Abijah his son reigned in his place.