2 Chronicles 12 Study Notes

12:1 All Israel in this context refers to residents of the kingdom of Judah, since the northern kingdom had already adopted Jeroboam’s idolatry as the new state religion.

12:2-3 No sooner had Rehoboam fallen away into idolatry than Shishak, the new pharaoh of Egypt, mobilized his forces for an invasion of Judah (as well as Israel, as documented in his own records). Egypt had stayed in the background for a long time, having to deal with internal problems as well as several military setbacks over the last two centuries. In the thirteenth century, Ramesses II had set out on a disastrous attempt to subject the Hittites in the north to his rule; he barely escaped with his army. This fact did not keep his subjects in Egypt from celebrating him as if he had achieved a major victory—for them it was a matter of national pride to put a positive spin on events. Egypt and the Hittites had seriously weakened each other, and Mesopotamia was gripped by a contest for power between Assyria and Babylonia. God had used these factors to enable David and Solomon to achieve great power. Furthermore, a while after Ramesses’s misadventure, the Philistines had attempted to invade Egypt. Even though Egypt managed to hold them off, this episode left them weaker still. Solomon had married the daughter of a pharaoh whose entire dynasty ended with him. Now there was a new family of rulers, headed up by Shishak, known to history as Shoshenq I (or Sheshonk). Shishak was a Libyan. He was able to take control of the Egyptians as well as the adjoining people such as Libyans, Sukkiim [a nation related to the Libyans], and Cushites.

12:4 In spite of all the work that both Solomon and Rehoboam had put into fortifying the cities of Judah, these efforts did not keep away the pharaoh whom God had sent as punishment for the sins of the kingdom.

12:5-6 When the prophet Shemaiah (11:2) explained to King Rehoboam that his sin was the cause of this invasion, he and the people repented. Some subsequent kings, when confronted with their sin, did not listen to God, and thus received the full consequences of their sin.

12:7-8 God granted only a limited deliverance in order that Judah would see that serving him was better than serving foreign rulers.

12:9 Shishak’s army arrived in Jerusalem and helped themselves to all the treasures that David and Solomon had collected. The gold shields, so conveniently stored on the walls of Solomon’s palace, became easy objects for the Egyptian army to carry off (see note at 9:13-16). Yet just as Shemaiah had predicted, Shishak did not destroy Jerusalem. This unusual action fits with Shishak’s own records of this military excursion. He listed in an inscription forty-one cities that he captured and decimated, but Jerusalem was not among them.

12:10-11 Having lost the gold shields, Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields and gave them more protection than he ever did to his father’s legacy. He had been humiliated several times as he attempted to emulate his father. Now we see a little bit of self-assertion shining through this gesture.

12:12 Shishak’s invasion was a lesson in humility. Shishak had apparently collected enough wealth to be satisfied. Despite the setback of the Egyptian invasion, on the whole, life in Judah was good.

12:13-14 The customary death notice for Rehoboam is negative. On balance, despite his repentance and God’s rescue, Rehoboam was considered an evil king who did not follow the law of the Lord.