1 Kings 12:1-11

Rehoboam went to Shechem where all Israel had come to make him king. When Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, heard the news, he returned from Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon. The people sent and called for Jeroboam, who along with the entire Israelite assembly went and said to Rehoboam, “Your father made our workload very hard for us. If you will lessen the demands your father made of us and lighten the heavy workload he demanded from us, then we will serve you.” He answered them, “Come back in three days.” So the people left. King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive. “What do you advise?” Rehoboam asked. “How should I respond to these people?” “If you will be a servant to this people by answering them and speaking good words today,” they replied, “then they will be your servants forever.” But Rehoboam ignored the advice the elders gave him and instead sought the counsel of the young advisors who had grown up with him and now served him. “What do you advise?” he asked them. “How should we respond to these people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the workload your father demanded of us’?” The young people who had grown up with him said to him, “This people said to you, ‘Your father made our workload heavy; lighten it for us!’ Now this is what you should say to them: ‘My baby finger is thicker than my father’s entire waist! So if my father made your workload heavy, I’ll make it even heavier! If my father disciplined you with whips, I’ll do it with scorpions!’”