New Revised Standard Version
he spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”

Contemporary English Version
and told them exactly what his own advisors had suggested. He said: "My father made you work hard, but I'll make you work even harder. He punished you with whips, but I'll use whips with pieces of sharp metal!"

New American Bible
He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father laid a heavy yoke on you; I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips; I will use scorpions.”

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he spoke according to the advice of the young men: My father laid upon you a heavy yoke, which I will make heavier: my father beat you with scourges, but I will beat you with scorpions.

And he spoke according to the advice of the young men: My father laid upon you a heavy yoke, which I will make heavier: my father beat you with scourges, but I will beat you with scorpions.

the advice

2 Chronicles 22:4,5 So he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Achab did: for they were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction. . . .

Proverbs 12:5 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood: the mouth of the just shall deliver them.

Daniel 6:7 All the princes of the kingdom, the magistrates, and governors, the senators, and judges, have consulted together, that an imperial decree, and an edict be published: That whosoever shall ask any petition of any god, or man, for thirty days, but of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of the lions.

My father

2 Kings 10:10,11 See therefore now that there hath not fallen to the ground any of the words of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Achab, and the Lord hath done that which he spoke in the hand of his servant Elias. . . .

Proverbs 17:14 The beginning of quarrels is as when one letteth out water: and before he suffereth reproach, he forsaketh judgment.

Ecclesiastes 2:19 Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a fool, and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and been solicitous: and is there anything so vain?

Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a speech than the beginning. Better is the patient man than the presumptuous.

Ecclesiastes 10:16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and when the princes eat in the morning.

James 3:14-18 But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contention in your hearts: glory not and be not liars against the truth. . . .

James 4:1,2 From whence are wars and contentions among you? Are they not hence, from your concupiscences, which war in your members? . . .