7
They answered him, "If you will be kind to this people and please them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."
8
But he rejected the advice that the older men gave him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him.
9
He said to them, "What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, "Lighten the yoke that your father put on us'?"
10
The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "Thus should you speak to the people who said to you, "Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us'; tell them, "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.
11
Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.' "
12
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, "Come to me again the third day."
13
The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men;
14
he spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."
15
So the king did not listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs brought about by God so that the Lord might fulfill his word, which he had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16
When all Israel saw that 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. Each of you to your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David." So all Israel departed to their tents.
17
But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who were living in the cities of Judah.