6. Then Sovereign Reḥaḇ‛am consulted the elders who stood before his father Shelomoh while he still lived, saying, “What do you advise me to answer these people?”
7. And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are good to these people, and shall please them, and speak good words to them, they shall be your servants all the days.”
8. But he ignored the advice the elders gave him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.
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 the 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 put a heavy yoke on you, but I, I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I with scourges!’ ”
12. So Yaroḇ‛am and all the people came to Reḥaḇ‛am on the third day, as the sovereign commanded, saying, “Come back to me the third day.”
13. And the sovereign answered them harshly. Thus Sovereign Reḥaḇ‛am ignored the advice of the elders,
14. and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I, I add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I with scourges!”
15. So the sovereign did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from Elohim, in order for יהוה to establish His word, which He had spoken by the hand of Aḥiyahu the Shilonite to Yaroḇ‛am son of Neḇat.
16. And when all Yisra’ĕl saw that the sovereign did not listen to them, the people answered the sovereign, saying, “What portion have we in Dawiḏ? And we have no inheritance in the son of Yishai. Every man to your mighty ones, O Yisra’ĕl! Now see to your own house, O Dawiḏ!” So all Yisra’ĕl went to their tents.
17. But as for the children of Yisra’ĕl who dwelt in the cities of Yehuḏah, Reḥaḇ‛am reigned over them.