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1 Kings 12:5-15

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5 Then he said to them, "1Depart for three days, then return to me." So the people departed.
6 King Rehoboam 2consulted with the elders who had served * his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, "How do you counsel me to answer * this people?"
7 Then they spoke to him, saying, "3If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever *."
8 But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served * him.
9 So he said to them, "What counsel do you give that we may answer * this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"
10 The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!' But you shall speak to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!
11 'Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.' "
12 Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, "4Return to me on the third day."
13 The king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him,
14 and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, "5My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."
15 So the king did not listen to the people; 6for it was a turn of events from the LORD, 7that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
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1 Kings 12:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 12

This chapter relates Rehoboam's going to Shechem to be made king, and Jeroboam's return from Egypt, 1Ki 12:1,2, the people's request to Rehoboam to be eased of their taxes, as the condition of making him king, 1Ki 12:3,4, his answer to them, after three days, having had the advice both of the old and young men, which latter he followed, and gave in a rough answer, 1Ki 12:5-15, upon which ten tribes revolted from him, and two abode by him, 1Ki 12:16-20, wherefore he meditated a war against the ten tribes, but was forbid by the Lord to engage in it, 1Ki 12:21-24 and Jeroboam, in order to establish his kingdom, and preserve the people from a revolt to the house of David, because of the temple worship at Jerusalem, devised a scheme of idolatrous worship in his own territories, 1Ki 12:25-33.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 7

  • 1. 1 Kings 12:12
  • 2. 1 Kings 4:1-6; Job 12:12; Job 32:7
  • 3. 2 Chronicles 10:7; Proverbs 15:1
  • 4. 1 Kings 12:5
  • 5. Exodus 1:13, 14; Exodus 5:5-9, 16-18
  • 6. Deuteronomy 2:30; Judges 14:4; 1 Kings 12:24; 2 Chronicles 10:15
  • 7. 1 Kings 11:11, 31

Footnotes 6

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