2 Chronicles 10

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

2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it—he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

3So they sent for him and summoned him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

4“Your father made our yoke hard. Now lighten the hard labor your father imposed and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

5He said to them, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people went away.

6King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was alive. “How do you advise me to answer this people?” he asked.

7They told him, “If you are kind to this people and please them and speak kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

8But he rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.

9He asked them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

10The young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’—this is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.

11Now then, my father laid 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.’”

12So 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.”

13The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders

14and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men: “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.”

15So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events came from God, so that Yahweh might fulfill his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

16As for all Israel, since the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Everyone to your tents, Israel! Now look after your own house, David!” So all Israel went to their tents.

17But as for the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

18Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.