2 Chronicles 10

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it, he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon. Jeroboam returned from Egypt. They sent for him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, “Your father made our yoke harsh. Now lighten the hard service your father imposed and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” He said to them, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people left. King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served before his father Solomon while he was alive. He asked, “How do you advise me to answer these people?” They told him, “If you are kind to these people, please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants always.” But he rejected the counsel the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served before him. He asked them, “What do you advise us to answer these people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” The young men who had grown up with him said, “This is what you should say to the people who told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us.’ Tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. My father loaded a heavy yoke on you, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’” Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.” The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders' counsel and spoke to them according to the young men's counsel: “I will make your yoke heavy, and I will add to it. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events came from God, so that the LORD might fulfill the word he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. Because the king would not listen to all Israel, the people answered the king: “What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, every one of you, Israel! Now look after your own house, David!” So all Israel went to their tents. Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah. King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam hastened to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Rights and attribution