Shishak Attacks Jerusalem

12 After Rehoboam’s kingdom was set up and he became strong, he and the people of Judah stopped obeying the teachings of the Lord. ² During the fifth year Rehoboam was king, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, because Rehoboam and the people were unfaithful to the Lord. ³ Shishak had twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. He brought troops of Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites from Egypt with him, so many they couldn’t be counted. ⁴ Shishak captured the strong, walled cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵ Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered in Jerusalem because they were afraid of Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have left me, so now I will leave you to face Shishak alone.’”

⁶ Then the leaders of Judah and King Rehoboam were sorry for what they had done. They said, “The Lord does what is right.”

⁷ When the Lord saw they were sorry for what they had done, the Lord spoke his word to Shemaiah, saying, “The king and the leaders are sorry. So I will not destroy them but will save them soon. I will not use Shishak to punish Jerusalem in my anger. ⁸ But the people of Jerusalem will become Shishak’s servants so they may learn that serving me is different than serving the kings of other nations.”

⁹ Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ¹⁰ So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to take their place and gave them to the commanders of the guards for the palace gates. ¹¹ Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards went with him, carrying the shields. Later, they would put them back in the guardroom.

¹² When Rehoboam was sorry for what he had done, the Lord held his anger back and did not fully destroy Rehoboam. There was some good in Judah.

¹³ King Rehoboam made himself a strong king in Jerusalem. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for seventeen years. Jerusalem is the city that the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel in which he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah from the country of Ammon. ¹⁴ Rehoboam did evil because he did not want to obey the Lord.

¹⁵ The things Rehoboam did as king, from the beginning to the end, are written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer, in the family histories. There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time they ruled. ¹⁶ Rehoboam died and was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Abijah became king in his place.

The Temple Is Given to the Lord

7 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from the sky and burned up the burnt offering and the sacrifices. The Lord’s glory filled the Temple. ² The priests could not enter the Temple of the Lord, because the Lord’s glory filled it. ³ When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down from heaven and the Lord’s glory on the Temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and thanked the Lord, saying,

⁴ Then King Solomon and all the people offered sacrifices to the Lord. ⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people gave the Temple to God. ⁶ The priests stood ready to do their work. The Levites also stood with the instruments of the Lord’s music that King David had made for praising the Lord. The priests and Levites were saying, “His love continues forever.” The priests, who stood across from the Levites, blew their trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.

⁷ Solomon made holy the middle part of the courtyard, which is in front of the Temple of the Lord. There he offered whole burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings. He offered them in the courtyard, because the bronze altar he had made could not hold the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fat.

⁸ Solomon and all the Israelites celebrated the festival for seven days. There were many people, and they came from as far away as Lebo Hamath and the brook of Egypt. ⁹ For seven days they celebrated giving the altar for the worship of God. Then they celebrated the festival for seven days. On the eighth day they had a meeting. ¹⁰ On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people home, full of joy. They were happy because the Lord had been so good to David, Solomon, and his people Israel.

The Lord Appears to Solomon

¹¹ Solomon finished the Temple of the Lord and his royal palace. He had success in doing everything he planned in the Temple of the Lord and his own palace. ¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself to be a Temple for sacrifices.

¹³ “I may stop the sky from sending rain. I may command the locusts to destroy the land. I may send sicknesses to my people. ¹⁴ Then if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, if they will pray and seek me and stop their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now I will see them, and I will listen to the prayers prayed in this place. ¹⁶ I have chosen this Temple and made it holy. So I will be worshiped there forever. Yes, I will always watch over it and love it.

¹⁷ “But you must serve me as your father David did. You must obey all I have commanded and keep my laws and rules. ¹⁸ If you do, I will make your kingdom strong. This is the agreement I made with your father David, saying, ‘Someone from your family will always rule in Israel.’

¹⁹ “But you must follow me and obey the laws and commands I have given you. You must not serve or worship other gods. ²⁰ If you do, I will take the Israelites out of my land, the land I have given them, and I will leave this Temple that I have made holy. All the nations will make fun of it and speak evil about it. ²¹ This Temple is honored now, but then, everyone who passes by will be shocked. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and this Temple?’ ²² People will answer, ‘This happened because they left the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God who brought them out of Egypt. They decided to follow other gods and worshiped and served them, so he brought all this disaster on them.’”