2 Chronicles 10
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all the Israelites had gone to Shechem to make him king.
And Roboam went to Sichem: for thither all Israel were assembled, to make him king.
2 Jeroboam, son of Nebat, was still in Egypt when he heard about this. (He had run away to Egypt to escape from King Solomon and was living there.)
And when Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who was in Egypt, (for he was fled thither from Solomon, ) heard it, forthwith he returned.
3 The Israelite leaders sent for him. Jereboam and all the Israelites went to talk with Rehoboam.
And they sent for him, and he came with all Israel, and they spoke to Roboam, saying:
4 “Your father placed a heavy burden on us,” they told him. “But now if you lighten the load your father imposed and the heavy demands he laid on us, we will serve you.”
Thy father oppressed us with a most grievous yoke, do thou govern us with a lighter hand than thy father, who laid upon us a heavy servitude, and ease some thing of the burden, that we may serve thee.
5 Rehoboam answered, “Come back in three days time.” So the people left.
And he said to them: Come to me again after three days. And when the people were gone,
6 King Rehoboam asked for advice from the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive. “How do you advise me to reply to these people about this?” he asked.
He took counsel with the ancients, who had stood before his father Solomon, while he yet lived, saying: What counsel give you to me, that I may answer the people?
7 They replied, “If you treat these people well, and please them by speaking kindly to them, they will always serve you.”
And they said to him: If thou please this people, and soothe them with kind words, they will be thy servants for ever.
8 But Rehoboam dismissed the advice of the elders. He instead asked advice from the young men who he had grown up with, and who were close to him.
But he forsook the counsel of the ancients, and began to treat with the young men, that had been brought up with him, and were in his train.
9 He asked them, “What response do you advise that we send back to these people who have told me, ‘Lighten the burden your father put on us’?”
And he said to them: What seemeth good to you? or what shall I answer this people, who have said to me: Ease the yoke which thy father laid upon us?
10 The young men who he had grown up with told him, “This is what you have to tell these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our burden heavy, but you should make it lighter.’ This is what you should answer them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist!
But they answered as young men, and brought up with him in pleasures, and said: Thus shalt thou speak to the people, that said to thee: Thy father made our yoke heavy, do thou ease it: thus shalt thou answer them: My little finger is thicker than the loins of my father.
11 My father placed a heavy burden on you, and I will make it even heavier. My father punished you with whips; I will punish you with scorpions.’”
My father laid upon you a heavy yoke, and I will add more weight to it: my father beat you with scourges, but I will beat you with scorpions.
12 Three days later, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, because the king had told them, “Come back in three days time.”
So Jeroboam, and all the people came to Roboam the third day, as he commanded them.
13 The king answered them sharply. Dismissing the advice of the elders,
And the king answered roughly, leaving the counsel of the ancients.
14 he replied using the advice of the young men. He said, “My father placed a heavy burden on you, and I will make it even heavier. My father punished you with whips; I will punish you with scorpions.”
And he spoke according to the advice of the young men: My father laid upon you a heavy yoke, which I will make heavier: my father beat you with scourges, but I will beat you with scorpions.
15 The king did not listen to what the people said, for this change in circumstances was from God, to fulfill what Lord had told Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.
And he condescended not to the people’s requests: for it was the will of God, that his word might be fulfilled which he had spoken by the hand of Ahias the Silonite to Jeroboam the son of Nabat.
16 When all the Israelites saw that the king wasn't listening to them, they told the king: “What share do we have in David, and what part do we have in the son of Jesse? Go home, Israel! You're on your own, house of David!” So all the Israelites went home.
And all the people upon the king’s speaking roughly, said thus unto him: We have no part in David, nor inheritance in the son of Isai. Return to thy dwellings, O Israel, and do thou, O David, feed thy own house. And Israel went away to their dwellings.
17 However, Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in Judah.
But Roboam reigned over the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Juda.
18 Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam quickly jumped into his chariot and raced back to Jerusalem.
And king Roboam sent Aduram, who was over the tributes, and the children of Israel stoned him, and he died: and king Roboam made haste to gee up into his chariot, and fled into Jerusalem.
19 As a result, Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
And Israel revolted from the house of David unto this day.
