1 Kings 14:25 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Shishak. — His invasion is narrated at greater length in the record of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 12:2-12), which contains a description of his army, and a notice of the preservation of Jerusalem from destruction, though not from surrender, on the repentance of the people at the call of Shemaiah. It records also the taking of “fenced cities,” having noticed previously the fortifications of many such “cities of defence” by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:5-10). This record is remarkably confirmed by the celebrated inscription at Karnak (see Dict. of the Bible: “SHISHAK”) enumerating the conquests of Sheshenk (Shishak), in which names of cities, partly in Judah, partly in Israel, are traced. The latter are Levitical or Canaanitish cities; and it has been conjectured that, much as the Pharaoh of Solomon’s day took Gezer and gave it to Israel (see 1 Kings 9:16), so the Egyptian army, coming as allies of Jeroboam, took, or helped him to take, those cities which were hostile or disloyal to him. It is not unlikely that the whole invasion was instigated by Jeroboam, in that desire to crush the kingdom of Judah which afterwards suggested his war with Abijam. (See 2 Chronicles 13)

1 Kings 14:25

25 And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: