We are then told that when Shishak had captured all the outlying cities of Judah and was on his way to Jerusalem, the prophet Shemaiah frankly told King Rehoboam that his trouble had come upon him because of his apostasy. In blunt words he delivered this graphic warning: “Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.” When this message was so courageously delivered, the princes of Israel and the godless counselors of the apostate king together prostrated themselves before the Lord and acknowledged that His judgment was just and His decision was righteous. The record continues with the fact that when the Lord saw that they had repented, He promised to save the humbled court and the threatened city. But with the promise of deliverance from destruction there came also the grim edict that in order that they might learn the difference between serving God and being under the bondage of a heathen culture, they should be subject to Shishak and serve him. Thus in Chronicles we do have the account repeated that was given to us in the record of the Kings, but with additional details that illumine and clarify the record. Shishak swept the land bare of precious metals and took away the treasures of the temple as well. Not only did he leave the king and the court destitute of their priceless ornaments, but he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Plate 28 [Illustration: Note how top of building seems to erupt from the hill] Plate 29 [Illustration: Compare size of men in the doorway of “El Deir”] We now enter into a consideration of one of the most tragic and humiliating spectacles in all antiquity. When the penitent and restored king saw the effects of his apostasy, he called the people back to the practice of their earlier faith and himself came daily to the house of the Lord for the exercise of prayer. But as the humbled monarch knelt in prayer, he could not keep his eyes off the vacant walls. Where the five hundred golden objects had once hung, testifying to the wealth of that house and the greatness of his father, there was nothing but the bare wall. It must be remembered that those golden ornaments had not belonged to him. They had been hung in their places to praise and glorify God by his greater ancestor. Therefore, when an enemy came and stole them away, it was a constant and mute reproach to him because of his own failure to live up to the standards and greatness of a preceding generation. The troubled king gave orders that the targets and shields should be replaced with copies of what had been lost. There was, however, neither gold nor silver in the land, for Shishak had made a clean sweep of all that was valuable. Thus, having lost the reality of their treasure, the best they could do was to make a cheap similitude in brass.