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Journey of a Passage

1 Kings 14:25–26

Shishak and Shoshenq: a text and an inscription

This is not a manuscript variant: all the witnesses checked agree that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem in Rehoboam's fifth year. The question is how the biblical text relates to Shoshenq I's own record at Karnak.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 3 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
Egyptian
  1. Shoshenq I, Bubastite Portal, Karnakc. 925 BC

Every witness, in order

  1. c. 925 BC

    Shoshenq I, Bubastite Portal, Karnak

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts contained

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    A triumphal relief with more than 150 name-rings of places in the southern Levant. Jerusalem is not clearly among the surviving names. A royal inscription, not a copy of Kings.

    Relief of Shoshenq I's campaign list at Karnak
    Authentic ancient artifactImage credit

    Source: Ancient Israel and Ancient Egypt (Cambridge Elements), on Shoshenq I ↗; K. Jansen-Winkeln, "Egypt and the North" (2015), on Shoshenq's campaign ↗

  2. Unknown (debated)

    Original Kings

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  3. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 3 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Sésac, roi d'Égypte, marcha contre Jérusalem.

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    ascendit Sesac rex Ægypti in Jerusalem

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    עָלָה שׁוּשַׁק (שִׁישַׁק) מֶלֶךְ־מִצְרַיִם עַל־יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם

    Shushaq (read Shishaq) king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem

    The consonants read Shushaq; the vowels and margin read Shishaq. Both are close to the Egyptian name Shoshenq (the n was not always written).

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem

What changed, and why

The identification of Shishak with Shoshenq I is widely accepted and is one of the anchors of biblical chronology. The two records agree that a pharaoh campaigned in Rehoboam's time; they differ in focus (Kings: Jerusalem's treasures; Karnak: towns in Israel and the Negev).

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • Jeroboam, Rehoboam and Shishak →Jeroboam's son Abijah falls sick. His wife disguises herself and goes to the blind prophet Ahijah, who knows her at once and announces the end of Jeroboam's house; the child dies as she reaches home. In Judah, Rehoboam's people build high places. In Rehoboam's fifth year Shishak king of Egypt takes the treasures of the temple and the palace, including Solomon's gold shields, which are replaced with bronze.
  • Historical Investigation: The Divided Monarchy Outside the Bible →With the divided kingdom, the biblical story begins to meet outside records. An Egyptian pharaoh lists towns in Israel; a Moabite king names Omri; an Assyrian king names Ahab at Qarqar. These texts confirm names, dates and powers, and they also differ from Kings in what they emphasize.