2 Chronicles 10 — BSB
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Rebellion against Rehoboam
10Verse 1Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.Verse 2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon.Verse 3So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,Verse 4“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”Verse 5Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people departed.Verse 6Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.Verse 7They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”Verse 8But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.Verse 9He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”Verse 10The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!Verse 11Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”Verse 12After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”Verse 13And the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the eldersVerse 14and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy,+I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”Verse 15So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.The Kingdom Divided
Verse 16When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered+the king:“What portion do we have in David,and what inheritance in the son of Jesse?To your tents, O Israel!Look now to your own house, O David!”
So all the Israelites went home,Verse 17but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.Verse 18Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram,+who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem.Verse 19So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.