✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

2 Crónicas 12

VBL · Chapter 12/36

1Una vez que Roboam se afianzó en el trono y estuvo seguro de su poder, junto con todos los israelitas abandonó la ley del Señor.

2En el quinto año del reinado de Roboam, Sisac, rey de Egipto, vino y atacó a Jerusalén porque habían sido infieles a Dios.

3Vino de Egipto con 1.200 carros, 60.000 jinetes y un ejército que no se podía contar Egipto: libios, siquenos y cusitas.

4Conquistó las ciudades fortificadas de Judá y luego se acercó a Jerusalén.

5El profeta Semaías se acercó a Roboam y a los dirigentes de Judá que habían huido para ponerse a salvo en Jerusalén a causa de Sisac. Les dijo: “Esto es lo que dice el Señor: ‘Ustedes me han abandonado, así que yo los he abandonado a Sisac’”.

6Los dirigentes de Israel y el rey admitieron que estaban equivocados y dijeron: “El Señor tiene razón”.

7Cuando el Señor vio que se habían arrepentido, envió un mensaje a Semaías, diciendo: “Se han arrepentido. No los destruiré, y pronto los salvaré. Mi ira no se derramará sobre Jerusalén por medio de Sisac.

8Aun así, se convertirán en sus súbditos, para que aprendan la diferencia entre servirme a mí y servir a los reyes de la tierra”.

9El rey Sisac de Egipto atacó Jerusalén y se llevó los tesoros del Templo del Señor y los tesoros del palacio real. Se lo llevó todo, incluidos los escudos de oro que había hecho Salomón.

10Más tarde Roboam los sustituyó por escudos de bronce y los entregó para que los cuidaran los comandantes de la guardia apostados a la entrada del palacio real.

11Cada vez que el rey entraba en el Templo del Señor, los guardias lo acompañaban, llevando los escudos, y luego los llevaban de vuelta a la sala de guardia.

12Como Roboam se arrepintió, la ira del Señor no cayó sobre él, y el Señor no lo destruyó por completo. Las cosas fueron bien en Judá.

13El rey Roboam se hizo poderoso en Jerusalén. Tenía cuarenta y un años cuando llegó a ser rey, y reinó diecisiete años en Jerusalén, la ciudad que el Señor había escogido de entre todas las tribus de Israel donde sería honrado. El nombre de su madre era Naama la amonita.

14Pero Roboam hizo lo malo porque no se comprometió a seguir al Señor.

15Lo que hizo Roboam, desde el principio hasta el final, está escrito en los registros del profeta Semaías y del vidente Iddo que tratan de las genealogías. Sin embargo, Roboam y Jeroboam siempre estuvieron en guerra entre sí.

16Roboam murió y fue enterrado en la Ciudad de David. Su hijo Abías tomó el relevo como rey.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

After growing strong, Rehoboam and the people of Judah abandon the law of the LORD, and as a consequence King Shishak of Egypt invades Judah and plunders the treasures of the temple and the palace. When the people humble themselves before the prophetic message of Shemaiah, God moderates the punishment, preventing total destruction.

Explanation

This chapter establishes a pattern that will repeat many times throughout 2 Chronicles: prosperity leads to arrogance, arrogance leads to the abandonment of faith, the abandonment of faith brings judgment through foreign invaders, but genuine humility, even if late, can soften the consequences of judgment. A powerful symbolic detail is that Rehoboam replaces the stolen gold shields with bronze ones — a clear visual metaphor for the spiritual and material decline of the kingdom, from something precious to something ordinary, under leadership that no longer prioritized seeking God as his grandfather David had done.

Fun facts

  • The Egyptian pharaoh Shishak (also called Sheshonq I) is a historically confirmed figure through Egyptian inscriptions that record his military campaign against cities of Israel and Judah, offering a rare direct archaeological confirmation of biblical events.
  • The replacement of the gold shields with bronze shields, kept by the palace guards, is often used as a spiritual metaphor to describe any situation in which something genuine and valuable is replaced by an inferior imitation.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 2 Crónicas 12:1As soon as Rehoboam’s kingdom becomes settled and strong, he and all the people abandon the law of the Lord — success becomes an occasion for spiritual carelessness.
  2. 2 Crónicas 12:2Pharaoh Shishak’s invasion of Jerusalem, five years after Rehoboam takes the throne, is a real historical event, recorded even in Egyptian inscriptions from the time — it’s not just an isolated biblical tradition. The text ties the invasion directly to the kingdom’s having abandoned faithfulness to the Lord.
  3. 2 Crónicas 12:3Shishak’s Egyptian army is described as enormous: twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and a countless multitude of Lubims, Sukkiims, and Ethiopians.
  4. 2 Crónicas 12:4Shishak conquers the fortified cities of Judah — the very ones Rehoboam had just reinforced in the previous chapter — and reaches all the way to Jerusalem.
  5. 2 Crónicas 12:5The prophet Shemaiah confronts Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah gathered in Jerusalem with a direct message: since they abandoned God, He has also abandoned them into the hand of Shishak.
  6. 2 Crónicas 12:6Faced with this warning, the leaders of Judah and the king himself humble themselves and acknowledge, “The Lord is righteous” — accepting the blame without contesting it.
  7. 2 Crónicas 12:7Seeing this humility, God changes the course of the message to Shemaiah: He will not destroy the people, He will only grant some relief so that His wrath does not fall on Jerusalem with full force through Shishak.
  8. 2 Crónicas 12:8Since the people humble themselves at the prophet’s warning, God does not let Jerusalem be destroyed, but He still allows them to become Shishak’s servants — “that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” It’s a reduced punishment, but not a cancelled one, used as a lesson.
  9. 2 Crónicas 12:9Shishak plunders the treasures of the temple and the palace, carrying off even the famous gold shields Solomon had made.
  10. 2 Crónicas 12:10In place of the stolen gold shields, Rehoboam has bronze shields made, handed over to the commanders of the guard stationed at the entrance of the palace.
  11. 2 Crónicas 12:11Every time the king entered the temple, the guard would carry these bronze shields and then put them back in the guardroom — a substitute that was visibly poorer than the original.
  12. 2 Crónicas 12:12Because Rehoboam humbled himself, God’s wrath turns away before destroying him completely — and the text adds that there were still good things in Judah at that moment.
  13. 2 Crónicas 12:13Rehoboam establishes himself on the throne in Jerusalem, reigning seventeen years starting at forty-one years old; his mother, Naamah, was an Ammonitess, a detail the Chronicler always records about every king.
  14. 2 Crónicas 12:14The Chronicler’s verdict on Rehoboam is direct: he did evil, because he never prepared his heart to truly seek the Lord.
  15. 2 Crónicas 12:15The summary of Rehoboam’s reign points to the records of the prophets Shemaiah and Iddo, and mentions that the wars between him and Jeroboam never stopped as long as the two of them lived.
  16. 2 Crónicas 12:16Rehoboam dies and is buried in the city of David; his son Abijah takes the throne in his place, opening the next chapter.

Chapters

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play