1And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king.
2And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it, (for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King Solomon,) he came back from Egypt.
3And they sent for him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,
4Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel, and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be your servants.
5And he said to them, Come to me again after three days. So the people went away.
6Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people?
7And they said to him, If you are kind to this people, pleasing them and saying good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever.