[12:1] As soon as Rehoboam had established his authority as king, he and all his people abandoned the Law of the Lord.
[12:2] In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign their disloyalty to the Lord was punished. King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem
[12:3] with an army of twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand cavalry, and more soldiers than could be counted, including Libyan, Sukkite, and Ethiopian troops.
[12:4] He captured the fortified cities of Judah and advanced as far as Jerusalem.
[12:5] Shemaiah the prophet went to King Rehoboam and the Judean leaders who had gathered in Jerusalem to escape Shishak. He said to them, “This is the Lord's message to you: ‘You have abandoned me, so now I have abandoned you to Shishak.’”
[12:6] The king and the leaders admitted that they had sinned, and they said, “What the Lord is doing is just.”
[12:7] When the Lord saw this, he spoke again to Shemaiah and said to him, “Because they admit their sin, I will not destroy them. But when Shishak attacks, they will barely survive. Jerusalem will not feel the full force of my anger,
[12:8] but Shishak will conquer them, and they will learn the difference between serving me and serving earthly rulers.”
[12:9] King Shishak came to Jerusalem and took the treasures from the Temple and from the palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that King Solomon had made.
[12:10] To replace them, Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates.
[12:11] Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom.
[12:12] Because he submitted to the Lord, the Lord's anger did not completely destroy him, and things went well for Judah.