However, Jeroboam met the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite who forecast that he would become the King of the northern ten of the tribes of Israel. Solomon heard of this prophesy and " sought to kill " Jeroboam who was forced to flee to Egypt to the household of the Egyptian King, Shishak. There he remained until the death of Solomon. I Kings 11:26-41.

After Solomon's death, Jeroboam returned to Israel and as the prophesy foretold, became King of the Ten Northern Tribes leaving Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, King of Judah and Benjamin which of course included the city of Jerusalem.

" AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE KINGDOM OF REHOBOAM WAS ESTABLISHED, AND HE WAS STRONG, THAT HE FORSOOK THE LAW OF THE LORD, AND ALL ISRAEL WITH HIM." II Chron. 12:1

He had built a system of great fortifications and had wanted to attack Jeroboam in the north but the prophet Shemaiah warned against it. It was at this point that Shishak the ally of Jeroboam, attacked from the south with a massive army consisting of 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and" people without number that came with him out of Egypt: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians." II Chron. 12:2-3.

Because Rehoboam had dealt treacherously with the Lord, he was surrounded on all sides, Jeroboam with the ten tribes in the north, Shishak with an immense army in the south. Shishak took all the great fortified cities that Rehoboam had built to protect Jerusalem and came there.

In Jerusalem according to legend was the greatest treasure the world had ever known, treasure amassed by Solomon and that brought by the Children of Israel out of Egypt. More importantly, Jeroboam, the ally of Shishak must have known of every item.

The demands of Shishak were simple, hand over the treasure and Jerusalem would be left alone.
" So Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the King's house: he took all away."

That was the account in Chronicles, written by Ezra in Babylon (or the Chronicler. We will debate this matter in the chat room later). The account in the Book of Kings similarly reads:

"..Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the King's house; he even took away all." I Kings 14: 25-26.

Is there any doubt that Rehoboam was forced to give up everything EVEN THE ARK. He was no longer doing the bidding of G-O-D. Ezra (or the Chronicler )after all had an opportunity of clarifying the account in the Book of Kings if he had felt that account was either in error or misleading. Jeroboam knew EVERYTHING of importance regarding the treasures in Jerusalem. What possible excuse would there be for Rehoboam not to hand over everything as stated?

The question then is why could not Shishak be Shoshenq as most of the Egyptologists claim and if not Shoshenq then whom.

Two great scholars show in their respective books the invasion route of the Egyptian King Shoshenq I obtained from the great topographical list of Shoshenq I at Karnak.

K. A. Kitchen has

this map in his wonderful book. (The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, K. A. Kitchen soft cover, ISBN 0856682985, list $49.95)

Another scholar, Professor Yohanan Aharoni from the same text at Karnak, drew this map in his masterwork (The Land of the Bible, A Historical Geography, Hardcover ISBN 0860120937, published in England, and Softcover ISBN 0664242669, published in the U.S.A.). Both editions are hard to obtain.

Earlier in his book Kitchen draws this map. You will note that he has to add in small arrows a route NOT from the Egyptian records, where it does not exist, but from the biblical record.

The reason of course he had to do that is obvious. If you study the maps closely Shoshenq did absolutely the reverse of what the Biblical account suggests. Remember he was an ally and a relative by marriage of Jeroboam, now King of the Northern Kingdom. What does the Karnak invasion route clearly show? That he invaded his ALLY and bypassed Rehoboam from whom he is supposed to have taken all the treasure from the Temple in Jerusalem. It is ABSOLUTELY clear, if the Egyptian record is correct then the Biblical account is completely wrong. But Egyptologists use the identification of Shishak as Shoshenq I as the most powerful of anchor points in their chronology. They cannot have it both ways.

Should they care ( as Dr. Bob Bianchi has done) to put aside the slip-shod identification made one afternoon on the run by Champollion in1802, then it is clear from the maps alone that Shishak could not possibly have been Shoshenq I.A view of a map of the divided kingdom at the time makes that absolutely clear.

We will address the true identification of Shishak next week. In the meantime everyone can do exactly what I did in searching for the real Shishak. Look for an invasion of an Egyptian King in the Egyptian records, who only invaded the South and did not go north of Jerusalem. If you find one that suddenly became extremely wealthy also, then of course that would be an added bonus....and of course there are many others when you find the correct one.

Any Questions?