| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. | 1Rehoboam traveled to Shechem, because all of Israel went there to install him as king. |
| 2When 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. | 2Nebat's son Jeroboam heard about it in Egypt, where he had fled to get away from Solomon the king. Jeroboam returned from Egypt |
| 3So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: | 3after being summoned. When Jeroboam and all of Israel arrived, they spoke to Rehoboam, |
| 4"Your father made our yoke difficult. Therefore, lighten your father's harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." | 4"Your father made our burdens unbearable. Therefore you must lighten your father's requirements and his heavy burden that he placed on us, and we'll serve you." |
| 5Rehoboam replied, "Return to me in three days." So the people left. | 5"Come back again in three days," Rehoboam told them. So the people left |
| 6Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, "How do you advise me to respond to these people?" | 6while King Rehoboam conferred with his advisors who had worked with his father Solomon during his administration. He asked them, "What is your advice as to what response I should return to these people?" |
| 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." | 7In reply, they told him, "If you will be kind to this people, please them, and speak appropriately to them with kind words, they'll serve you forever." |
| 8But 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 serving him. | 8But Rehoboam ignored the counsel that his elder advisors had given him. Instead, he consulted the younger men who had grown up with him and worked for him. |
| 9He asked them, "What message do you advise we send back to these people who said to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us?" | 9As a result, he asked them, "What's your advice, so we can give an answer to these people who have asked me, 'Please lighten the burden that your father put on us'?" |
| 10Then 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 loins. | 10"This is what you should tell the people who asked you 'Your father made our burden heavy, but you must make it lighter for us!'" the young men who had grown up with Rehoboam replied. "Tell them 'My little finger will be thicker than my father's whole body! |
| 11Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.'" | 11Not only that, but since my father loaded you down heavily, I'm going to add to that burden. If my father disciplined you with whips, I'm going to do so with scorpions!'" |
| 12So 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." | 12So Jeroboam and all the people went back to Rehoboam on the third day, just as they had been directed when the king said, "Come back again in three days." |
| 13Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders' advice | 13But the king answered them strictly and ignored the counsel of his elders. |
| 14and spoke to them according to the young men's advice, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips." | 14Instead, Rehoboam spoke to them along the lines of what the younger men suggested. He told them "My father burdened you heavily, but I will add to that burden. If my father disciplined you with whips, I will, too—with scorpions!" |
| 15The 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. | 15The king would not listen to the people because the turn of events was from God, so that the LORD might fulfill his prediction that he spoke through Nebat's son Ahijah the Shilonite. |
| 16When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king: What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, each man to your tent; David, look after your own house now! So all Israel went to their tents. | 16All of Israel—since the king wasn't going to listen to them—the people responded to the king, "What's the point in following David? We have no inheritance in the descendants of Jesse. Let's go home, Israel! David, take care of your own household!' So all of Israel left for home. |
| 17But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. | 17And so Rehoboam ruled over the Israelis who lived in the cities of Judah. |
| 18Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. | 18King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of conscripted labor, but the Israelis stoned him to death, and King Rehoboam had to jump in his chariot and flee back in a hurry to Jerusalem. |
| 19Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today. | 19That's how Israel came to be in rebellion against David's dynasty to this day. |
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