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.
16. When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king:“What share have we in David?We have no heritage in the son of Jesse.To your tents, Israel!Now look to your own house, David.”So Israel went off to their tents.
17. But Rehoboam continued to reign over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.
18. King Rehoboam then sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam then managed to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.
19. And so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20. When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to an assembly and made him king over all Israel. None remained loyal to the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.
21. On his arrival in Jerusalem, Rehoboam assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—one hundred and eighty thousand elite warriors—to wage war against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon.
22. However, the word of God came to Shemaiah, a man of God:
23. Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and to Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:
24. Thus says the Lord: You must not go out to war against your fellow Israelites. Return home, each of you, for it is I who have brought this about. They obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back, according to the word of the Lord.
25. Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then he left it and built up Penuel.
26. Jeroboam thought to himself: “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.