Israel Revolts Against Rehoboam
10 1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it — for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon — Jeroboam returned from Egypt. 3 So they sent for him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4 "Your father made our yoke heavy. Now lighten the hard service of your father and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
5 He said to them, "Come back to me in three days." So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. "How do you advise me to answer these people?" he asked.
7 They replied, "If you are good to these people and please them and speak kind words to them, they will be your servants forever."
8 But he rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, "What do you advise? How should we answer these people who have said to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"
10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, "This is what you should say to the people who told you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us' — tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. 11 My father laid a heavy yoke on you; I will make it heavier. My father disciplined you with whips; I will discipline you with scorpions.'" a a v11 Scorpions: a type of barbed or metal-tipped whip, far more painful than an ordinary whip.
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had said, "Come back to me on the third day." 13 The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders 14 and spoke to them following the advice of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it heavier. My father disciplined you with whips; I will discipline you with scorpions."
15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from our Father, that he might fulfill the word our Father had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16 When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king: "What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse! Each of you to your tents, Israel! Look now to your own house, David!" So all Israel went home to their tents. b b v16 "To your tents" was an ancient rallying cry meaning "go home and withdraw your allegiance from the king."
17 But Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah. 18 Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam himself jumped into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.