9
"What do you advise?" he asked them. "How should we respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the workload your father demanded from us'?"
10
The young people who had grown up with Rehoboam said to him,"This people said to you, ‘Your father made our workload heavy. Lighten it for us!' Now this is what you should say to them, ‘My baby finger is thicker than my father's waist!
11
So if my father made your workload heavy, I'll make it even heavier! If my father disciplined you with whips, I'll do it with scorpions!'"
12
Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had specified when he said, "Come back in three days."
13
The king then answered the people harshly. He ignored the elders' advice,