²³And he dealt wisely, and dispersed of all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, unto every fenced city: and he gave them victual in abundance. And he sought _for them_ many wives¹. ¹ Or, _sought a multitude of wives_. =23.= _all the lands_] i.e. the territory of Judah; compare 1 Chronicles xiii. 2 (margin). _And he sought_ for them _many wives_] More exactly, as margin, _And he sought a multitude of wives_. It is difficult to say whether or not the Chronicler has Deuteronomy xvii. 17 in his mind and is implicitly blaming the king. In any case he goes on in the next verse to say that Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord. It is however probable that there is a slight error in the Hebrew and that the text ran originally thus, _And he took for them_ (i.e. for his sons) _a multitude of wives_. Rehoboam’s own conjugal affairs have been already described in verse 21. CHAPTER XII. =1‒12= (compare 1 Kings xiv. 22, 25‒28). THE INVASION OF SHISHAK. ¹And 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. =1.= _all Israel_] i.e. all the Southern Kingdom; compare note on xi. 3. The details of Judah’s apostasy are given in 1 Kings xiv. 22‒24. ²And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had trespassed against the LORD, =2.= _Shishak_] The Egyptian king has commemorated this expedition in a pictorial inscription on the wall of the temple of Karnak. It appears that the Northern Kingdom suffered as well as the Southern; much spoil was carried off, but no permanent conquest of Canaan was attempted. (Breasted, _History of Egypt_, pp. 529 f.) _because they had trespassed_] A touch characteristic of the Chronicler; compare xiii. 18, xxi. 10, xxiv. 24, xxv. 20, xxvii. 6, xxviii. 19; and 1 Chronicles x. 13, 14. The Chronicler sees the working of temporal rewards and of temporal punishments everywhere. ³with twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. =3.= _with twelve hundred chariots_] The details given in this verse are absent from 1 Kings. _Lubim_] i.e. the Libyans of North Africa. Shishak was a leader of Libyan mercenaries. He made himself master of Egypt _circa_ 950 B.C., and is known as the founder of the XXIInd dynasty. _Sukkiim_] LXX. Τρωγλοδύται, i.e. the cave dwellers of the mountains which fringe the west coast of the Red Sea. But whether these are really meant here is doubtful. ⁴And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came unto Jerusalem. =4.= _the fenced cities_] Compare xi. 5.