2 Chronicles 10:1-11 ▼

1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

2 And it came to pass, when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard it—he was in Egypt, because he had fled from the presence of Solomon the king—that Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

3 And they sent and called for him, and Jeroboam came, and all Israel, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

4 “Your father hardened our yoke, and now lighten the severe service of your father and his heavy yoke that he put on us, and we will serve you.”

5 And he said to them, “After three days come back to me.” And the people departed.

6 And King Rehoboam counseled with the elders who had stood before Solomon his father in his being alive, saying, “How do you? counsel to answer this people?”

7 And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to this people, and please them and speak to them good words, they will be to you servants all the days.”

8 And he rejected the counsel of the elders who had counseled him, and he counseled with the young men who had grown up with him, those standing before him.

9 And he said to them, “What do you? counsel, and how should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten from the yoke that your father gave to us’?”

10 and the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to the people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made heavy our yoke, and you, make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than the loins of my father.

11 And now, my father loaded on you? a heavy yoke, and I will add to your? yoke; my father chastised you? with whips, and I with scorpions.’”