In the fifth year of Rehoboam Judah and Jerusalem were ravaged by
Pharaoh Shishak (1Kings xiv. 25). The explanation is that three
years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon, because for
three years they were strengthened and reinforced by the priests
and Levites and other pious persons who had immigrated from the
northern kingdom (2Chronicles xi. 17); but thereafter in the fourth
year, after the kingdom of Rehoboam had been strengthened and
confirmed, he forsook the Law and all Israel with him (xii. 1)--
and in the fifth year followed the invasion of Shishak. A prophet
announces this, and in consequence the king humbles himself
along with his people and escapes with comparatively trifling
punishment, being thought worthy to reign yet other twelve years.
Asa in his old age was diseased in his feet (1Kings xv. 23).
According to 2Chronicles xvi. 12, he died of this illness, which is
described as extremely dangerous, in the forty-first year of his
reign, after having already been otherwise unfortunate in his
later years. And why? He had invoked foreign aid, instead of
the divine, against Baasha of Israel.
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