2 ChroniclesChapter 10
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1Rehoboam went to Shechem. All Israel had gone there to make him king. 2Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this. He had run away to Egypt to escape from King Solomon. Now he came back from Egypt. 3So they sent for Jeroboam. Then he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, 4"Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now make the hard work your father forced on us lighter. Make lighter the heavy yoke he put on us. Then we will serve you." 5Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people left. 6Then King Rehoboam asked for advice from the elders. They had served his father Solomon while he was alive. He asked, "What do you advise me to say to these people?" 7They answered, "If you will be kind to these people and please them, and speak kind words to them, then they will be your servants forever." 8But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him. Instead, he asked the young men who had grown up with him and served him. 9He asked them, "What do you advise? How should we answer these people? They said to me, 'Make the yoke your father put on us lighter.'" 10The young men who had grown up with him answered, "Here is how to answer these people. They said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.' Tell them this: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist! 11My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it even heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.'" 12After three days, Jeroboam and all the people came back to Rehoboam. The king had told them, "Come back to me on the third day." 13The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders. 14He spoke to them the way the young men had advised. He said, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it even heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions." 15So the king did not listen to the people. This turn of events came from God. The LORD made it happen to keep the promise he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat. He had spoken it through Ahijah the Shilonite. 16All Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them. So they answered the king, "What share do we have in David? What part do we have in the son of Jesse? Go to your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, O David!" So all the Israelites went home. 17But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah. 18Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced workers. But the Israelites threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot and ran away to Jerusalem. 19So Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.