Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 12:1-12
Israel was very much disgraced and weakened by being divided into two kingdoms; yet the kingdom of Judah, having both the temple and the royal city, both the house of David and the house of Aaron, might have done very well if they had continued in the way of their duty; but here we have all out of order there.
I. Rehoboam and his people left God: He forsook the law of the Lord, and so in effect forsook God, and all Israel with him, Ch2 12:1. He had his happy triennium, when he walked in the way of David and Solomon (Ch2 11:17), but it expired, and he grew remiss in the worship of God; in what instances we are not told, but he fell off, and Judah with him, here called Israel, because they wal…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Chronicles 12:2
Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem--He was the first king of the twenty-second or Bubastic Dynasty. What was the immediate cause of this invasion? Whether it was in resentment for some provocation from the king of Judah, or in pursuance of ambitious views of conquest, is not said. But the invading army was a vast horde, for Shishak brought along with his native Egyptians an immense number of foreign auxiliaries.
Adam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 12:2
Shishak king of Egypt - Concerning this man, and the motive which led him to attack the Jews, see the note on Kg1 14:31.
Transgressed against the Lord - "Against the Word of the Lord." - Targum.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 12:2
And it came to pass in the fifth year of Rehoboam,.... In the fourth year, the apostasy of him and his people began; and, in the year following, what is next related happened, as a punishment of it:
Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; of whom see 1 Kings 11:40,
because they transgressed against the Lord; transgressed the law of the Lord by falling into idolatry and other abominable evils; the Targum is,"against the Word of the Lord.''
