1 Kings 12:9

He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Rehoboam addresses the young men who grew up with him and served him, asking how to respond to the northern tribes' demand to reduce the oppressive yoke his father established.

The words — The verb נֽוֹעָצִים (no.'a.Tzim), rendered here as "counseling," frames the king’s inquiry as a direct request for strategic guidance rather than casual opinion.

The thread — This royal consultation pattern recurs in 2 Samuel 17:5 and 1 Kings 22:6, while 2 Chronicles 10:9 preserves the identical question in a parallel account.

Why it lands — The text records Rehoboam’s request for advice without commentary, leaving the reader to evaluate the structural consequences of his subsequent rejection of established counsel.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter?

Cross-references

2 Samuel 17:5 Then Absalom said, “Summon Hushai the Archite as well, and let us hear what he too has to say.”
1 Kings 22:6 So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
2 Chronicles 10:9 He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
2 Chronicles 18:5 So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, four hundred men, and asked them, “Should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and God will deliver it into the hand of the king.”