2 Chronicles 10:3–11

³So they sent and summoned him. When Jeroboam and all Israel came, they spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

⁴“Your father made our ^ayoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵He said to them, “Return to me again in three days.” So the people departed.

⁶Then King Rehoboam ^aconsulted with the elders who had ¹served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you counsel me to answer this people?”

⁷They spoke to him, saying, “If you will be kind to this people and please them and ^aspeak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he ^aforsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him ¹and served him.

⁹So he said to them, “What counsel do you give that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”

¹⁰The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to the people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us.’ Thus you shall say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!

¹¹‘Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”