Old Testament
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
New Testament
2 Chronicles 10
Rehoboam King of Judah
(1 Kings 12:1-20)[]
101Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.
2When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon, heard about this, he returned from Egypt, 3and the people then sent for Jeroboam.
Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, 4“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now lighten your father's harsh service and the heavy yoke that he laid on us, and we will serve you.”
5Rehoboam said to them, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.
6King Rehoboam asked for advice from the old men[] who had served his father Solomon while he was alive: “How would you advise me to respond to these people?”
7They said to him, “If you are good to these people and respond favorably to their request, and you speak accommodating words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
8But Rehoboam did not follow the advice the old men gave him. Instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who were serving as his advisors. 9He said to them, “How would you advise me to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father laid upon us’?”
10The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy. You make it light for us.’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.[] 11My father imposed a heavy yoke on you. I will add to your yoke. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.’”[]
12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed: “Come back to me on the third day.”
13The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the old men.
14Instead, he spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy. I will add to it. My father punished you with whips. I will punish you with scorpions.”
15The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events was from God, so that the Lord would keep his word, as he had spoken it to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah from Shiloh.
What share do we have in David?
No inheritance with the son of Jesse!
To your tents, Israel!
Now, look after your own house, David!
17Rehoboam continued to rule over the people of Israel who were living in the cities of Judah.
18King Rehoboam sent Hadoram,[] who was in charge of the forced labor, but the people of Israel stoned Hadoram to death. King Rehoboam, however, was able to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David until this day.
Footnotes
- 10:1 The Hebrew of this account is close to that of the account in 1 Kings 12. The wording of the translation above is harmonized with that of 1 Kings 12, but each account retains some of the insights of the two independent translators.
- 10:6 Or elders
- 10:10 Or thighs
- 10:11 Possibly a name for a particularly painful kind of scourge, here and in verse 14
- 10:16 Many Hebrew manuscripts omit saw, but this reading has good support in the ancient versions.
- 10:16 Go to their tents is a common idiom for go home. It does not imply that the Israelites all lived in tents.
- 10:18 Also called Adoram or Adoniram