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Rehoboam's Reign of Folly

^1 (C1)Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.² When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about the new king (for he ^(C1)was in ^(F1)Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), Jeroboam returned from Egypt. ^(VR1)3 And the people sent messengers and summoned him. So when Jeroboam and all Israel came, they spoke to Rehoboam, saying,⁴ "Your father King Solomon made our ^(C1)yoke hard (heavy, difficult); so now lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you."⁵ Rehoboam replied, "Come back to me again in three days." So the people departed.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam ^(C1)consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon as advisers while he was alive, asking, "What advice do you give me in answer to these people?"⁷ They answered him, saying, "If you are kind to these people and please them and ^(C1)speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."⁸ But the king ^(C1)rejected the advice which the elders gave him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him as advisers.⁹ He asked them, "What advice do you give to us regarding the answer to these people, who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"¹⁰ The young men who grew up with him told him, "Tell the people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us': 'My little finger is thicker than my father's ^(F1)loins!¹¹ 'Now my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will add more weight to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions (extremely painful scourges).'"

¹² So on the third day Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam just as the king had directed, saying, "Return to me on the third day."¹³ The king answered them harshly, for King Rehoboam rejected the counsel of the elders.¹⁴ He spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, ^(C1)for the ^(F1)turn of events was from God ^(C2)that the LORD might fulfill His word, which He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ^(VR1)

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king did not listen and pay attention to them, the people answered him,

"^(C1)What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Every man to your tents, O Israel;
Now, Rehoboam, descendant of David, see to your own house."
^(C2)So all Israel went to their tents.