2 Chronicles 12

¹⁷So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

¹³Thus King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

¹³Under their authority was an army of 307,500 trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies.

¹⁴Uzziah supplied the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones.

²²And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and by the sins they committed they provoked Him to jealous anger more than all their fathers had done.

²³They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.

¹⁰And when the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build,

¹¹with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied,

⁴⁰Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, where he remained until the death of Solomon.

¹⁹But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

⁴³Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

¹⁵Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

²²So the Lord could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

²³Because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in His instruction, His statutes, and His testimonies, this disaster has befallen you, as you see today.”

¹³for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

⁹Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were her allies.

⁸Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand.

⁴³He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and over all the riches of Egypt, and the Libyans and Cushites will also submit to him.

¹⁶And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number.

⁵Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.

³For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built up cities for defense in Judah.

⁶He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁸It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!

¹⁰Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the Lord.

¹In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁷Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

¹¹and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”

²But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God:

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

¹⁴David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

¹⁹And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”

¹⁵If, however, you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

²⁷Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said. “The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

¹⁴Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

¹⁸Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

¹⁹His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers.

³⁷When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

³⁸then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

²⁵because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be poured out upon this place and will not be quenched.’

²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

²⁸Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying:

²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”

¹⁵“We have sinned,” the Israelites said to the Lord. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!”

¹⁶So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.

²³But the Lord was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them, and He turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And to this day, the Lord has been unwilling to destroy them or cast them from His presence.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the Lord.

⁴⁷Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,

⁴⁸you will serve your enemies the Lord will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

¹³O Lord our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we confess.

²⁴Correct me, O Lord, but only with justice—not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.

¹These are the nations that the Lord left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,

³⁶So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves!

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield.

¹⁶He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.

¹⁷He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

²⁵In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.

²⁶He seized the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

⁸Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

¹⁵Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁰The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.

²⁷Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the care of the captains of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.

²⁵He was most honored among the Thirty, but he did not become one of the Three. And David appointed him over his guard.

⁷Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel.

⁸All are skilled with the sword, experienced in warfare. Each has his sword at his side prepared for the terror of the night.

²³He was most honored among the Thirty, but he did not become one of the Three. And David appointed him over his guard.

¹⁸Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were priestly leaders.

¹How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

³However, some good is found in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles from the land and have set your heart on seeking God.”

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

¹³And when he prayed to Him, the Lord received his plea and heard his petition. So He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

⁶So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”

⁷When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but will soon grant them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.

¹³All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has the Lord, the God of Israel, found any good in the house of Jeroboam.

²²Because of the loving devotion of the Lord we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

¹³And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”

²¹Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

⁶⁸But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

¹A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain.

²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

³However, some good is found in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles from the land and have set your heart on seeking God.”

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

¹³Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, from a place in a land of darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a wasteland.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I say what is right.

³¹So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

⁶Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.

⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

²⁹As for the rest of the acts of Solomon, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Records of Nathan the Prophet, in the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the Visions of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?

⁵Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have forsaken Me; therefore, I have forsaken you into the hand of Shishak.’”

²²Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, along with his ways and his words, are written in the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

²⁹As for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, along with all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁰There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days.

¹⁰Solomon’s son was Rehoboam: Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,

¹In the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign, Abijah became king of Judah,

²⁰After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

²⁹As for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, along with all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁰There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days.

⁷Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa.