Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Chronicles 12

When Rehoboam had established the kingdom. —Rather, when Rehoboam’s kingdom had been established. The construction is impersonal: when one had established Rehoboam’s kingdom. The narrative is resumed from 2 Chronicles 11:17.

And had strengthened himself. — And when he had become strong (hezqâh, an infinitive, used again at 2 Chronicles 26:16; Daniel 11:2, and nowhere else).

He forsook the law of the Lord — i.e., lapsed into idolatry. (See 1 Kings 14:22–24, where the offence is more precisely described.)

All Israel. —The southern kingdom being regarded as the true Israel. (Compare 2 Chronicles 12:6.)

And it came to pass. —See 1 Kings 14:25, with which this verse literally coincides, except that the last clause, because they had transgressed, is added by the chronicler.

In the fifth year of king Rehoboam. —The order of events is thus given: For three years Rehoboam and his people continued faithful to the Lord (2 Chronicles 11:17); in the fourth year they fell away, and in the fifth their apostasy was punished.

Shishak. —The Sesonchis of Manetho, and the sh-sh-nk of the hieroglyphs, was the first king of the 22nd dynasty.

Ebers states, “His name, and those of his successors, Osorkon (Zerah) and Takelot, are Semitic. This fact explains the Biblical notice that Solomon took a princess of this dynasty as his consort and maintained close commercial relations with Egypt, and also that Hadad the Edomite received the sister of Tahpenes the queen as his wife (1 Kings 11:19). In the year 949 B.C., Shishak, at Jeroboam’s instigation, took the field against Rehoboam, besieged Jerusalem, captured it, and carried off rich booty to Thebes. On a southern wall of the Temple of Karnak, all Palestinian towns that the Egyptians took in this expedition are enumerated” (Riehm’s Handwort. Bibl. Alterth., p. 333).

Because they had transgressed. — For they had been faithless to Jehovah. This is the chronicler’s own parenthetic explanation of the event and expresses in one phrase his whole philosophy of Israelite history. Of course, it is not meant that Shishak had any consciousness of the providential reason for his invasion of Judah.

With twelve hundred chariots. —The short account in Kings says nothing of the numbers or constituents of the invading host. The totals here assigned are probably round numbers founded on a rough estimate. The cavalry are exactly fifty times as many as the chariots. Thenius finds the numbers “not in credible.”

The Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethi-opians. —Rather, Lybians, Sukkîyans, and Cushites (without the definite article). These were “the people”— i.e., the footmen. The Lybians and Cushites are mentioned together as auxiliaries of Egypt in Nahum 3:9. (Compare to 2 Chronicles 16:8.) The Sukkîyans are unknown, but the Septuagint and Vulgate render Troglodytes, or cave-dwellers, meaning, it would seem, the Ethiopian Troglodytes of the mountains on the western shore of the Arabian Gulf. (Compare to sukkô, “his lair,”Psalms 10:9.)

He took the fenced cities. —Those very cities which Rehoboam had fortified as bulwarks against Egypt (2 Chronicles 11:5–12). Fourteen names of cities have disappeared from the Karnak inscription, but Socho, Adoraim, and Ajalon are still read there.

Came to (so far as to) Jerusalem. —Compare to Isaiah 36:1-2. The verse is not in Kings. Thenius (on 1 Kings 14:26) says that the chronicler has here made use of “really historical notices.” It is self-evident.

Then. — And.

Shemaiah the prophet. —The section relating to his mission and its results (2 Chronicles 12:5–8) is unique to the chronicle.

The princes of Judah, who were gathered together to Jerusalem. —Repulsed by the Egyptian arms, they had fallen back upon Jerusalem, to defend the capital. While the invading army lay before the city, Shemaiah addressed the king and princes.

You have forsaken. —There is emphasis on the pronoun. Literally, You have forsaken me, and I also have forsaken you, in (into) the hand of Shishak. The phrase “to leave into the hand” of a foe occurs Nehemiah 9:28. (Compare also 2 Chronicles 15:2; 2 Chronicles 24:20; and Deuteronomy 31:16-17.) Here the words amount to a menace of utter destruction. (Compare Jonah 3:4.)