FRAMEWORKS:
2 Chronicles 12: Judah
& Rehoboam are disciplined; his reign.
[Introductory
Notes: This chapter
records how the Lord disciplined Judah and demeaned the king's
reign by allowing the king of Egypt to pillage Jerusalem and leave
it somewhat impoverished.]
v.1-4
Judah are disciplined by the Lord for their unfaithfulness
v.1
After
Rehoboam's position as king was established
and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned
the law of the Lord.
v.2
Because
they had been unfaithful to the Lord,
Shishak king of Egypt attacked
Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam.
v.3
With
twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable
troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from
Egypt,
v.4
he
captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
v.5,6
A prophet confronts them and they repent
v.5
Then
the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to
the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of
Shishak, and he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord
says: “You
have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.”'
v.6
The
leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The
Lord
is just.'
v.7-9
Seeing their repentance, the Lord says He will not destroy them
v.7
When
the Lord
saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord
came to Shemaiah:
‘Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but
will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out
on Jerusalem through Shishak.
v.8
They
will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the
difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.'
v.9
When
Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures
of the temple of the Lord
and the treasures
of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields
that Solomon had made.
v.10,11
Life at the palace is diminished
v.10
So
King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned
these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to
the royal palace.
v.11
Whenever
the king went to the Lord's
temple, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, and afterwards
they returned them to the guardroom.
v.12,13
The Lord spares Rehoboam
v.12
Because
Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord's
anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed,
there was some good in Judah.
v.13
King
Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem
and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became
king, and he reigned for seventeen years in
Jerusalem, the city the Lord
had chosen
out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His
mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.
v.14-16
When Rehoboam eventually dies Abijah succeeds him
v.14
He
did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.
v.15
As
for the events of Rehoboam's reign, from beginning to end, are
they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of
Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies? There was continual
warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
v.16
Rehoboam
rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City
of David. And Abijah his son succeeded him as
king.
Continue
to Ch.13