2 Chronicles 12 · a question people ask
1 Kings tells Shishak's coming too. Do the two books tell it the same way?
They share much, in almost the same words. Both say "In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem" (1 Kings 14:25; 2 Chronicles 12:2). 1 Kings says "he took away the treasures of the LORD’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He even took away all of it, including all the gold shields which Solomon had made" (1 Kings 14:26), and 2 Chronicles, "took away the treasures of the LORD’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He took it all away. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made" (12:9). Both tell the bronze shields (1 Kings 14:27-28; 12:10-11), and both give Rehoboam's age and years in the same words (1 Kings 14:21; 12:13). 2 Chronicles alone gives the reason, "because they had trespassed against the LORD" (12:2), the chariots, horsemen and peoples (12:3), the fortified cities (12:4), Shemaiah's word (12:5, 12:7-8) and the humbling (12:6, 12:12). 1 Kings tells Judah's evil just before (1 Kings 14:22-24) but doesn't join it to Shishak with a "because". The books name his son differently: "Abijam his son reigned in his place" (1 Kings 14:31) and "Abijah his son reigned in his place" (12:16). They point to different records: "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah" (1 Kings 14:29) and "the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, in the genealogies" (12:15). These notes set the two tellings side by side and don't explain the differences.