Rehoboam turns away from the Lord

12 Rehoboam became a strong king who ruled with authority. But after that, he stopped obeying the law of the Lord. All the Israelites did the same thing. ² They did not serve the Lord in a faithful way. Because of that, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year that Rehoboam was king Judah. ³ King Shishak's army had 1,200 chariots and 60,000 soldiers who rode on horses. Many other soldiers came with him from Egypt. They included men from Libya, Sukkoth and Ethiopia. ⁴ He took power over Judah's strong cities. Then his army marched to attack Jerusalem.

⁵ The prophet Shemaiah then came to speak to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah. They had met together in Jerusalem because they were afraid of King Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, ‘The Lord says this: “You have turned away from me. So now I have turned away from you. I will let Shishak take power over you.” ’

⁶ The leaders of Israel and the king made themselves humble. They said, ‘The Lord is right to do that.’

⁷ The Lord saw that they had made themselves humble. So he said to Shemaiah, ‘Because they have made themselves humble, I will not destroy them. I will soon rescue them. I will not use Shishak to completely destroy Jerusalem's people. But because I am angry, ⁸ they will become his servants. Then they will learn what it is like to serve a foreign king instead of me.’

⁹ King Shishak of Egypt then attacked Jerusalem. He took away the valuable things that were in the Lord's temple and in the king's palace. He took everything for himself. That included the gold shields that King Solomon had made. ¹⁰ So Rehoboam used bronze to make other shields instead. He gave them to the officers of his own soldiers. These soldiers stood as guards at the entrance of the king's palace. ¹¹ Every time that the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. After that, they took them back to the guards' room where they stored them.

Rehoboam turns back to the Lord

¹² Rehoboam made himself humble. So the Lord did not destroy him. He stopped being angry with Rehoboam. He caused good things to happen in Judah.

¹³ Rehoboam made his authority as king in Jerusalem very strong. He was 41 years old when he became king. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem. That was the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. He chose it as the place where people would give honour to his name. Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman. Her name was Naamah. ¹⁴ Rehoboam did wicked things because he did not want to serve the Lord faithfully.

¹⁵ All the things that happened while Rehoboam was king of Judah are written in some books. The prophet Shemaiah and the prophet Iddo wrote those things in their books. The books include lists of the ancestors of Rehoboam's family. Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought wars against each other all the time.

¹⁶ Rehoboam died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. His son Abijah became king after him.^[a]