Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.
When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it — for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence — Jeroboam returned from Egypt.
“Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had attended his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people? ”
They replied, “If you will be kind to this people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones attending him.
He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’? ”
Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”
The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the LORD might carry out his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
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