Shoshenq I's Campaign in Canaan (c. 925 BC) and the Bible

Shoshenq I’s campaign in Canaan was a military expedition led by the founder of Egypt’s 22nd dynasty around 925 BC. His army marched through the lands of Judah and Israel and the Negev desert, and he recorded the places he claimed to have taken on a great relief at Karnak. Most scholars identify him with Shishak, the Egyptian king who, according to the Bible, took the treasures of Jerusalem.

Background

After the end of the New Kingdom around 1070 BC, Egypt was divided and had lost its empire in the Levant. Families of Libyan origin, descended from soldiers settled in the Delta, gained power in the north. One of them, Shoshenq, a chief of the Meshwesh Libyans and commander of the army, became king in about 943 BC.

Shoshenq I founded the 22nd dynasty and ruled from the Delta, where Tanis was the royal city and Bubastis his family’s home. This is why the 22nd dynasty is often called the Bubastite dynasty. He placed his son Iuput as high priest of Amun at Thebes, reuniting the country under his control. With Egypt united, he looked again towards the rich trade routes of the Levant.

According to the Bible, Jeroboam, an official who rebelled against King Solomon, fled to Egypt and found refuge with Shishak (1 Kings 11:40). After Solomon’s death the kingdom split into Israel in the north, under Jeroboam, and Judah in the south, under Rehoboam.

The campaign

The Bible says that in the fifth year of Rehoboam, “Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem” and took away the treasures of the Temple and the king’s house, including gold shields made by Solomon (1 Kings 14:25-26). The later account in 2 Chronicles adds an army of 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, numbers that historians treat as unreliable.

The Egyptian record gives a different picture. On the Bubastite Portal at Karnak, Shoshenq I is shown smiting captives before the god Amun, who leads rows of name rings. Each ring, shaped like a fortified wall around a bound prisoner, contains the name of a town or district.

More than 150 names survive. They include well-known places such as Megiddo, Taanach, Beth-shean, Rehob, Gibeon, Mahanaim and Penuel, and many small settlements in the Negev, the dry south. Interestingly, the surviving names are concentrated in the kingdom of Israel and the Negev, and Jerusalem itself does not appear in the preserved parts of the list.

Many scholars therefore think the campaign was a raid aimed at trade routes, copper production in the Arabah and the northern kingdom, while Judah avoided destruction by paying tribute. This would fit the Bible’s description of treasure being taken rather than the city being destroyed.

Archaeological evidence

During excavations at Megiddo in the 1920s, archaeologists found a fragment of a victory stele bearing Shoshenq I’s name. It shows that he set up a monument in the city, probably during the campaign.

Destruction layers at several sites in Israel and the Negev have been linked to the campaign. These links are important for the dating of Iron Age archaeology, but they are also debated. Scholars disagree over which layers belong to Shoshenq’s time, and this debate is part of wider arguments about the chronology of the early Israelite kingdoms.

Shoshenq I’s building at Karnak

Shoshenq planned a large new courtyard and gateway at Karnak to celebrate his reign. A stele at the Gebel el-Silsila quarries, dated to his 21st year, records the cutting of stone for this project. The Bubastite Portal, on the south side of the temple’s first court, was never fully finished, probably because the king died soon afterwards, in about 922 BC.

Key people

• Shoshenq I: Founder of the 22nd dynasty, of Libyan descent, who reigned c. 943-922 BC and led the campaign.
• Rehoboam: Son of Solomon and king of Judah, who according to the Bible surrendered the treasures of Jerusalem.
• Jeroboam I: First king of the northern kingdom of Israel, who had earlier taken refuge in Egypt.
• Iuput: Shoshenq’s son, appointed high priest of Amun at Thebes, who helped secure southern Egypt for the dynasty.

Timeline

• c. 943 BC: Shoshenq I becomes king and founds the 22nd dynasty.
• c. 931 BC: Traditional date for the death of Solomon and the division of Israel and Judah.
• c. 925 BC: Shoshenq I campaigns through Canaan and the Negev.
• c. 925 BC: According to the Bible, Rehoboam pays treasure from Jerusalem to Shishak.
• Year 21 (c. 923 BC): Quarrying for Shoshenq’s building at Karnak is recorded at Gebel el-Silsila.
• c. 922 BC: Shoshenq I dies; the Bubastite Portal is left unfinished.
• 1920s: A fragment of his stele is found at Megiddo.

Why it matters

Shoshenq I’s campaign is the first event in the Bible that can be matched with a named foreign ruler recorded in his own monuments. It provides a rare fixed point linking Egyptian history, biblical narrative and the archaeology of ancient Israel. It also marks a brief revival of Egyptian power abroad after centuries of weakness, a revival that faded under his successors. Shoshenq’s reign also saw the final sealing of the royal mummy cache at Deir el-Bahari, a reminder of how much Egypt had changed since the age of the great pharaohs.