1. Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come to make him king.
2. When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard about it, he was still in Egypt. He had fled from King Solomon and remained in Egypt,
3. and they sent for him.Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and they said to Rehoboam,
4. “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.”
5. He answered them, “Come back to me in three days,” and the people went away.
6. King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”
7. They replied, “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever.”
8. But he ignored the advice the elders had given him, and asked advice of the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.
9. He said to them, “What answer do you advise that we should give this people, who have told me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed on us’?”
10. The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is what you must say to this people who have told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; you lighten it for us.’ You must say, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.
11. My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.’”
12. Jeroboam and the whole people came back to King Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had instructed them: “Come back to me in three days.”
13. Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave the people a harsh answer.
14. He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.”
15. The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord: he fulfilled the word the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat.