4. “Your father made us work too hard! Now if you lighten the demands he made and don’t make us work as hard, we will serve you.”
5. He said to them, “Go away for three days, then return to me.” So the people went away.
6. King Rehoboam consulted with the older advisers who had served his father Solomon when he had been alive. He asked them, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”
7. They said to him, “If you are fair to these people, grant their request, and are cordial to them, they will be your servants from this time forward.”
8. But Rehoboam rejected their advice and consulted the young advisers who served him, with whom he had grown up.
9. He asked them, “How do you advise me to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?”
10. The young advisers with whom Rehoboam had grown up said to him, “Say this to these people who have said to you, ‘Your father made us work hard, but now lighten our burden’ – say this to them: ‘I am a lot harsher than my father!
11. My father imposed heavy demands on you; I will make them even heavier. My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.’”