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2 Chronicles 12

KJV · Chapter 12/36

1And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.

2And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord,

3With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.

4And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.

5Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

6Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The Lord is righteous.

7And 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; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

8Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

9So 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 all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

10Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king’s house.

11And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again into the guard chamber.

12And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.

13So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam was one and forty 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. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

14And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

15Now 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.

16And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

After growing strong, Rehoboam and the people of Judah abandon the law of the LORD, and as a consequence King Shishak of Egypt invades Judah and plunders the treasures of the temple and the palace. When the people humble themselves before the prophetic message of Shemaiah, God moderates the punishment, preventing total destruction.

Explanation

This chapter establishes a pattern that will repeat many times throughout 2 Chronicles: prosperity leads to arrogance, arrogance leads to the abandonment of faith, the abandonment of faith brings judgment through foreign invaders, but genuine humility, even if late, can soften the consequences of judgment. A powerful symbolic detail is that Rehoboam replaces the stolen gold shields with bronze ones — a clear visual metaphor for the spiritual and material decline of the kingdom, from something precious to something ordinary, under leadership that no longer prioritized seeking God as his grandfather David had done.

Fun facts

  • The Egyptian pharaoh Shishak (also called Sheshonq I) is a historically confirmed figure through Egyptian inscriptions that record his military campaign against cities of Israel and Judah, offering a rare direct archaeological confirmation of biblical events.
  • The replacement of the gold shields with bronze shields, kept by the palace guards, is often used as a spiritual metaphor to describe any situation in which something genuine and valuable is replaced by an inferior imitation.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 2 Chronicles 12:1As soon as Rehoboam’s kingdom becomes settled and strong, he and all the people abandon the law of the Lord — success becomes an occasion for spiritual carelessness.
  2. 2 Chronicles 12:2Pharaoh Shishak’s invasion of Jerusalem, five years after Rehoboam takes the throne, is a real historical event, recorded even in Egyptian inscriptions from the time — it’s not just an isolated biblical tradition. The text ties the invasion directly to the kingdom’s having abandoned faithfulness to the Lord.
  3. 2 Chronicles 12:3Shishak’s Egyptian army is described as enormous: twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and a countless multitude of Lubims, Sukkiims, and Ethiopians.
  4. 2 Chronicles 12:4Shishak conquers the fortified cities of Judah — the very ones Rehoboam had just reinforced in the previous chapter — and reaches all the way to Jerusalem.
  5. 2 Chronicles 12:5The prophet Shemaiah confronts Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah gathered in Jerusalem with a direct message: since they abandoned God, He has also abandoned them into the hand of Shishak.
  6. 2 Chronicles 12:6Faced with this warning, the leaders of Judah and the king himself humble themselves and acknowledge, “The Lord is righteous” — accepting the blame without contesting it.
  7. 2 Chronicles 12:7Seeing this humility, God changes the course of the message to Shemaiah: He will not destroy the people, He will only grant some relief so that His wrath does not fall on Jerusalem with full force through Shishak.
  8. 2 Chronicles 12:8Since the people humble themselves at the prophet’s warning, God does not let Jerusalem be destroyed, but He still allows them to become Shishak’s servants — “that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” It’s a reduced punishment, but not a cancelled one, used as a lesson.
  9. 2 Chronicles 12:9Shishak plunders the treasures of the temple and the palace, carrying off even the famous gold shields Solomon had made.
  10. 2 Chronicles 12:10In place of the stolen gold shields, Rehoboam has bronze shields made, handed over to the commanders of the guard stationed at the entrance of the palace.
  11. 2 Chronicles 12:11Every time the king entered the temple, the guard would carry these bronze shields and then put them back in the guardroom — a substitute that was visibly poorer than the original.
  12. 2 Chronicles 12:12Because Rehoboam humbled himself, God’s wrath turns away before destroying him completely — and the text adds that there were still good things in Judah at that moment.
  13. 2 Chronicles 12:13Rehoboam establishes himself on the throne in Jerusalem, reigning seventeen years starting at forty-one years old; his mother, Naamah, was an Ammonitess, a detail the Chronicler always records about every king.
  14. 2 Chronicles 12:14The Chronicler’s verdict on Rehoboam is direct: he did evil, because he never prepared his heart to truly seek the Lord.
  15. 2 Chronicles 12:15The summary of Rehoboam’s reign points to the records of the prophets Shemaiah and Iddo, and mentions that the wars between him and Jeroboam never stopped as long as the two of them lived.
  16. 2 Chronicles 12:16Rehoboam dies and is buried in the city of David; his son Abijah takes the throne in his place, opening the next chapter.

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