2 Chronicles 10:14

and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Rehoboam addresses the northern tribes immediately after rejecting the elders' advice and adopting the counsel of his younger peers. He delivers this response during the initial confrontation over taxation and forced labor.

The words — The Hebrew verb אַכְבִּיד ('akh.Bid) means "I will make heavy," directly intensifying the noun עֻלּוֹ ('ullo) for "yoke." The phrasing explicitly follows the young men's counsel (כַּעֲצַת הַיְלָדִים) to escalate oppression rather than mitigate it.

The thread — This escalation of harsh counsel parallels the warning in Proverbs 12:5 that the advice of the wicked leads to deceit, and fulfills the divine turn described in 2 Chronicles 10:15 where God orchestrates the king's refusal to listen.

Why it lands — The text records a deliberate policy shift that replaces the previous administration's burden with greater severity. It demands recognition that rejecting measured counsel and embracing harsh authority carries immediate, irreversible consequences.

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

וַיְדַבֵּ֣רva/y.da.Berand/ he spoke אֲלֵהֶ֗ם'a.le./Hemto/ them כַּעֲצַ֤תka./'a.Tzataccording to/ [the] counsel of הַיְלָדִים֙ha/y.la.Dimthe/ young men לֵאמֹ֔רle./Mor<to>/ saying אַכְבִּיד֙'akh.BidI will make heavy אֶֽת־'et-<obj.>עֻלְּכֶ֔ם'u.le./Khemyoke/ your וַאֲנִ֖יva./'a.Niand/ I אֹסִ֣יף'o.SifI will add עָלָ֑יו'a.La/vto/ it אָבִ֗י'a.V/ifather/ my יִסַּ֤רyi.Sarhe disciplined אֶתְכֶם֙'et./Khem<obj.>/ you בַּשּׁוֹטִ֔יםba./sho.Timwith <the>/ whips וַאֲנִ֖יva./'a.Niand/ I בָּעֲקְרַבִּֽים׃ba./'ak.ra.Bimwith <the>/ scorpions

King James Version

And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

Cross-references

2 Chronicles 10:10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!
2 Chronicles 22:4 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for to his destruction they were his counselors after the death of his father.
Proverbs 12:5 The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked leads to deceit.
Proverbs 17:14 To start a quarrel is to release a flood; so abandon the dispute before it breaks out.
Ecclesiastes 2:19 And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 The end of a matter is better than the beginning, and a patient spirit is better than a proud one.
Ecclesiastes 10:16 Woe to you, O land whose king is a youth, and whose princes feast in the morning.
Daniel 6:7 All the royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers, and governors have agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce a decree that for thirty days anyone who petitions any god or man except you, O king, will be thrown into the den of lions.
James 3:14 But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.