The Campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I Into Palestine

The thesis of this book is that the campaign by Pharaoh Shoshenq I into Palestine in 926 B.C.E. was aimed solely at the kingdom of Judah with the purpose of supporting Jeroboam in his bid to rule Israel as a separate nation. The evidence for this campaign comes from the Hebrew Bible (1 Kgs 14:25-28; 2 Chr 12:1-12), a triumphal relief of Shoshenq at Karnak, and a fragment of a stele at Megiddo. Kevin Wilson examines several major examples of triumphal reliefs erected by pharaohs of the New Kingdom in order to understand the genre as a whole. After a survey of other Egyptian texts considered pertinent to the campaign, the rest of this study is devoted to an analysis of the biblical texts that record the attack. The data gleaned from these analyses are then used to reconstruct the aim and purpose of the campaign.