He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything: Shishak took these things as an act of war. For this reason New Living Translation says “He ransacked the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace and stole everything.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch similarly says “He plundered….” The Masoretic Text is literally “and he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house and the all he took.” Revised Standard Version correctly does not translate the conjunction “and” before the words “the all he took,” since the sense of the conjunction here is “indeed” or “that is.”

The house of the LORD refers, of course, to the Temple in Jerusalem while the king’s house is the royal palace. He took away everything means that anything of value in either place was seized by the invading army and carried away. Of special importance were the shields that had been made during the reign of Solomon. For the shields of gold, see 1 Kgs 10.16-17 and the parallel account in 2 Chr 9.15-16.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .