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C hronicles – E Z R A – N E H E M I A H
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Rehoboam loved Maacah more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and they gave
birth to t wenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
Rehoboam appointed Maacah’s son Abijah as leader among the princes,
making it clear that he would be the next king. Rehoboam also wisely gave
responsibilities to his other sons and stationed some of them in the fortified towns throughout the land of Judah and Benjamin. He provided them
with generous provisions, and he found many wives for them.
But when Rehoboam was firmly established and strong, he abandoned
the Law of the Lord, and all Israel followed him in this sin. Because they
were unfaithful to the Lord, King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked
Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s reign. He came with 1,200
chariots, 60,000 horses, and a countless army of foot soldiers, including
Libyans, Sukkites, and Ethiopians. Shishak conquered Judah’s fortified
towns and then advanced to attack Jerusalem.
The prophet Shemaiah then met with Rehoboam and Judah’s leaders,
who had all fled to Jerusalem because of Shishak. Shemaiah told them,
“This is what the Lord says: You have abandoned me, so I am abandoning you to Shishak.”
Then the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said,
“The Lord is right in doing this to us!”
When the Lord saw their change of heart, he gave this message to
Shemaiah: “Since the people have humbled themselves, I will not completely destroy them and will soon give them some relief. I will not use
Shishak to pour out my anger on Jerusalem. But they will become his subjects, so they will know the difference between serving me and serving
earthly rulers.”
So King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem. He ransacked the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace; he stole
everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. King Re
hoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes, and he
entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected
the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Temple
of the Lord, the guards would also take the shields and then return them
to the guardroom. Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord’s anger
was turned away, and he did not destroy him completely. There were still
some good things in the land of Judah.
King Rehoboam firmly established himself in Jerusalem and continued
to rule. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned
seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from among
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