2 *Chronicles 12

₁When all the people had accepted that Rehoboam was their king, he and all the people of Israel stopped doing what God wanted. ₂And because they did not believe in God, King Shishak of Egypt came to attack Jerusalem. They came in the 5th year after Rehoboam had become king. ₃Shishak came with 1 200 war-chariots and 60 000 men on horses and his soldiers were so many that no one could count them. There were soldiers from the lands of Libya, Sukkim and Cush. ₄Shishak defeated the towns that had walls around them in Judah and then he came to Jerusalem. ₅The officers of Judah fled from Shishak and they came to Rehoboam in Jerusalem. The prophet Shemaiah came to them and he said to them: ‘The Lord says: “You have left Me, so now I have left you and Shishak can do with you what he wants.” ’

₆The officials of Israel and the king humbled themselves and they said: ‘The Lord is right.’

₇When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, He said to the prophet Shemaiah: ‘They have humbled themselves, so I will not cause all of them to die. I will not punish them as hard as I wanted to punish them. I will not use Shishak to make the people of Jerusalem feel how angry I really was. ₈But they will have to serve Shishak and they will find out what it is like to work for Me, and what it is like to serve kings of other lands.’

₉King Shishak of Egypt came to Jerusalem and he took all the precious things from the temple and the palace. He took everything, even the gold shields that Solomon had made. ₁₀King Rehoboam had other shields made of bronze and he gave the shields to the leaders of the guards who were standing in front of the palace. ₁₁Every time the king went to the temple, the guards went with him and they carried the shields. After that they put the shields back into the room of the guards. ₁₂Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord was not angry with him. The Lord did not cause all the people of Judah to die. Then everything went well in Judah again.

₁₃King Rehoboam was king in Jerusalem for many years. He was 41 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for 17 years. Jerusalem was the city that God had chosen from all the cities of the tribes_of_Israel. The Lord had chosen Jerusalem to belong to Him. Rehoboam's mother's name was Naamah. She was an Ammonite woman. ₁₄Rehoboam did bad things because he did not want to serve the Lord. ₁₅Everything that Rehoboam did, from the start to the end, is written in the book of the prophets Shemaiah and Iddo. They wrote everything in the book and also the list of names. There was always war_between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ₁₆Rehoboam died and they buried him in the City of David. His son, Abijah, became king after him.