2Ch 12 | EE | STEP | When Rehoboam had become a safe, strong king, he stopped obeying the LORD‘s Law. And all the Israelites did the same thing.

2 Chronicles 12

Rehoboam does not do what gives pleasure to the LORD

1 When Rehoboam had become a safe, strong king, he stopped obeying the LORD‘s Law. And all the Israelites did the same thing. 2 They had not been faithful to the LORD. Because of that, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. That happened 5 years after Rehoboam began to rule Judah. 3 Shishak attacked with 1200 chariots and 60,000 men on horses. Also, there were so many other soldiers that nobody could count them. There were soldiers from Libya and Ethiopia. And there were men called Sukkiim. And they came from Egypt with him. 4 He won the fight for the strong cities in Judah and he came near to Jerusalem.

The LORD uses Shemaiah to speak to Rehoboam

5 The prophet Shemaiah came to the leaders of Judah in Jerusalem. They had come together in Jerusalem because they were afraid of Shishak. Shemaiah told them that the LORD was saying, ‘You have gone away from me. So now I have gone away from you and I will let Shishak beat you.’

6 The leaders of Israel and the king made themselves humble and they said, ‘The LORD is a fair judge.’

7 The LORD saw that they had made themselves humble. So he said to Shemaiah, ‘I will not kill them because they have made themselves humble. I will give some help to them. I was angry but I will not let Shishak destroy Jerusalem now. 8 But they will become his servants. Then they will learn what it is like to be my servants. And they will learn that it is very different to be servants of kings from other countries.’

9 Shishak, king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. And he took away the valuable things from the LORD‘s house and the valuable things from the king’s house. He took everything. That included the shields of gold that Solomon had made. 10 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields instead. He gave them to the captains of the guards who kept the door of the king’s house safe. 11 They carried the shields when they went with the king to the LORD‘s house. When the king returned, they put the shields in their usual place again. That was in the guards‘room.

Rehoboam is sorry that he did wrong things

12 Rehoboam made himself humble. So the LORD was not so angry with him that he killed him. He did not kill him. And some things that happened in Judah were good.

13 King Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and he ruled there. He was 41 years old when he began to rule. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem, the city where the LORD had chosen to put his name. He chose it out of all the tribes of Israel. Rehoboam’s mother was called Naamah and she was an Ammonite. 14 But he did not really want to be the LORD‘s servant. So he did evil things.

15 Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo, the man that God showed visions to, have written about King Rehoboam in their books. They wrote down everything that he did from the beginning to the end. They wrote about things that happened to the people in each clan. Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought each other for their whole lives. 16 Rehoboam died and people buried him in David’s city with his ancestors. Then Abijah his son ruled as king instead.