9. And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”
10. And the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Say this to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us.’ Say this to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!
11. ‘And now, my father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I, I flog you with scourges!’ ”
12. So Yaroḇ‛am and all the people came to Reḥaḇ‛am the third day, as the sovereign had spoken, saying, “Come back to me the third day.”
13. But the sovereign answered the people harshly, and ignored the advice which the elders had given him,
14. and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I, I flog you with scourges!”
15. So the sovereign did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from יהוה, in order to establish His word, which יהוה had spoken by Aḥiyah the Shilonite to Yaroḇ‛am son of Neḇat.