Shoshenq I’s Campaign in Palestine

Also called: Shishak’s invasion, Sheshonq campaign

Around 925 BC Shoshenq I of Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty — the biblical Shishak — invaded the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. He carved a list of conquered towns on the walls of Karnak, and a fragment of his victory stele was found at Megiddo.

Shoshenq I, from a family of Libyan generals, founded Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty and marched into Palestine a few years after the kingdom split. 1 Kings 14 says that in Rehoboam’s fifth year Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and carried off the treasures of the Temple and the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made. Shoshenq was also the king who had sheltered Jeroboam when he fled from Solomon.

Back in Egypt, Shoshenq had the god Amun shown handing him the conquered towns on the Bubastite Portal of the temple of Karnak at Thebes, with more than 150 place names. Israelite towns such as Megiddo, Taanach, Beth-shean and Gibeon appear along with villages of the Negev, but Jerusalem is not found in the surviving list — whether it stood in a damaged section or was spared for tribute is debated. A fragment of a stele bearing Shoshenq’s name was found at Megiddo.

The campaign is one of the earliest events in Israel’s history told by both the Bible and Egyptian records, and it serves as the anchor for dating Solomon and Rehoboam against the Egyptian chronology.