III. SHEMAIAH, a Prophet of the Lord. He was sent to Rehoboam King of Judah,1 with this Message from God; Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your Brethren the Children of Israel; return every Man to his House, for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the Word of the Lord, and returned to depart, according to the Word of the Lord.
Some Years after this,2 Shishak King of Egypt came into Judea, made War against Rehoboam, and took the best Places of his Kingdom. Then the Prophet Shemaiah told Rehoboam and the Princes of Judah, who had retired into Jerusalem, that they had forsaken the Lord, and now he in his Turn would forsake them, and deliver them into the Hands of Shishak King of Egypt. The King and the Princes being in a Consternation, answer’d; The Lord is Just. God seeing their Humiliation, sent his Word to Shemaiah, saying; Since they have humbled themselves under my Hand, I will not entirely destroy them, I will give them some Succour, and my Wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem; but I will bring them into Subjection to this foreign Prince, that they may know the Difference between my Government, and that of the Kings of the Earth. Shishak enter’d into Jerusalem, and contented himself with taking away what was most valuable in the Treasuries of the Temple, and the King’s Treasury, and so return’d into Egypt. The same Prophet Shemaiah wrote the History of King Rehoboam. 2 Chron. xii. 15. This is all we know of this Prophet.
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