3-4Summoned by Israel, Jeroboam and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said, “Your father made life hard for us—worked our fingers to the bone. Give us a break; lighten up on us and we’ll willingly serve you.”

5“Give me,” said Rehoboam, “three days to think it over; then come back.” So the people left.

6King Rehoboam talked it over with the elders who had advised his father when he was alive: “What’s your counsel? How do you suggest that I answer the people?”

7They said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.”

8-9But he rejected the counsel of the elders and asked the young men he’d grown up with who were now currying his favor, “What do you think? What should I say to these people who are saying, ‘Give us a break from your father’s harsh ways—lighten up on us’?”

10-11The young turks he’d grown up with said, “These people who complain, ‘Your father was too hard on us; lighten up’—well, tell them this: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!’”

12-14Three days later Jeroboam and the people showed up, just as Rehoboam had directed when he said, “Give me three days to think it over; then come back.” The king’s answer was harsh and rude. He spurned the counsel of the elders and went with the advice of the younger set: “If you think life under my father was hard, you haven’t seen the half of it: my father thrashed you with whips; I’ll beat you bloody with chains!”

15Rehoboam turned a deaf ear to the people. God was behind all this, confirming the message that he had given to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah of Shiloh.

16-17When all Israel realized that the king hadn’t listened to a word they’d said, they stood up to him and said,

18-19When King Rehoboam next sent out Adoniram, head of the workforce, the Israelites ganged up on him, pelted him with stones, and killed him. King Rehoboam jumped in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem as fast as he could. Israel has been in rebellion against the Davidic dynasty ever since.