9. He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’? ”
10. Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!
11. Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.’ ”
12. So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.”
13. Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him
14. and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”
15. The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from the Lord to carry out His word, which the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16. When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him:What portion do we have in David?We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, return to your tents;David, now look after your own house! So Israel went to their tents,
17. but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.
18. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem.
19. Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.
20. When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.
21. When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized 180,000 choice warriors from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22. But a revelation from God came to Shemaiah, the man of God:
23. “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,