2 Chronicles 12:2 - Exposition

Shishak ; Hebrew, שִׁישַׁק ; Septuagint, σουσάκιμ ; Shishak, Sheshonk, Sesonchis, the Sheshenk I. or Shashank I. of the monuments, son of an Assyrian king called Nimrod or Nemaruth, became King of Egypt as first of six kings who lasted in all a hundred and seventy years, of the twenty-second dynasty of Manetho, reigning in Bubastis. To him Jeroboam had fled for refuge from Solomon ( 1 Kings 11:40 ). He reigned An. Sac. 3830 to 3851 or 3863. This makes Solomon's reign A.S. 3799 to 3839. Shishak's invasion, therefore, in aid of Jeroboam, was A.S. 3844. A representation of it exists in relief sculptured on the south external wall of the temple of Amen, at Karnak, Thebes; and, together with this, an elaborate list of countries, cities, tribes, conquered by Sheshenk or tributary to him, a hundred and thirty-three in number. Among these are some of the very fifteen fenced cities (see our 2 Chronicles 12:4 ) which Rehoboam built or fortified, viz. the three, Shoco, Adoraim, and Aijalon, while the erasure of fourteen names just where these are found accounts, no doubt, for the non-appearance of others of them. There are also the names of Levitical and Canaanite cities, situated in the kingdoms of the ten tribes, but belonging to the Levites who had been compelled to migrate into Judah. The dates given above are those accepted by Conder, in his 'Handbook to the Bible', and do not quite agree with those adopted in Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' 3.1287-1294. Both of these most interesting articles will well repay perusal, as well as the article "Thebes" in the latter work, 3.1471-1475.