Second Book of Chronicles 10

¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for it was to Shechem that all Israel had gone to proclaim him king.

² As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news – he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon – he returned from Egypt.

³ They sent and summoned him, and he came, with the whole assembly. And they said this to Rehoboam,

⁴ ‘Your father gave us a heavy burden to bear; lighten your father’s harsh tyranny now, and the weight of the burden he laid on us, and we will serve you’.

⁵ He said, ‘Come back to me in three days’. And the people went away.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the elders, who had been in the service of his father Solomon while he was alive. ‘What reply’ he asked ‘do you advise me to give to this people?’

⁷ ‘If you are kind to these people,’ they said ‘if you are pleasant to them and treat them fairly, then they will be your servants for ever.’

⁸ But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.

⁹ ‘How do you advise us’ he asked ‘to answer these people who have said to me, “Lighten the burden your father imposed on us”?’

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him replied, ‘Give this answer to these people who have said, “Your father gave us a heavy burden to bear, you must lighten it for us”, say this to them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!

¹¹ So then, my father made you bear a heavy burden; I will make it heavier still! My father beat you with whips; I am going to beat you with loaded scourges!”‘

¹² On the third day all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king’s command: ‘Come back to me on the third day’.

¹³ The king gave them a harsh answer. King Rehoboam, rejecting the advice of the elders,

¹⁴ spoke to them as the young men had recommended. ‘My father made you bear a heavy burden,’ he said ‘but I will make it heavier still. My father beat you with whips; I am going to beat you with loaded scourges!’

¹⁵ The king in fact took no notice of the people’s wishes, and this was brought about by God to carry out the promise Yahweh had spoken through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king took no notice of their wishes, they gave him this answer: ‘What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel, each one of you. Henceforth look after your own House, David!’ And all Israel went off to their tents.

¹⁷ Rehoboam however ruled over those sons of Israel who lived in the towns of Judah.

¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was in charge of forced labour, but the Israelites stoned him to death; whereupon King Rehoboam was obliged to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.

¹⁹ And Israel has remained separated from the House of David until the present day.