1 Kings 12:4

12:4 “Your father made us work too hard. ¹  Now if you lighten the demands he made and don’t make us work as hard, we will serve you.” ² 

1 Kings 11:12

11:12 However, for your father David’s sake I will not do this while you are alive. I will tear it away from your son’s hand instead.

1 Kings 3:14

3:14 If you follow my instructions ³  by obeying ⁴  my rules and regulations, just as your father David did, ⁵  then I will grant you long life.” ⁶ 

1 Kings 9:4

9:4 You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ⁷ 

1 Kings 18:18

18:18 Elijah ⁸  replied, “I have not brought disaster ⁹  on Israel. But you and your father’s dynasty have, by abandoning the Lord’s commandments and following the Baals.

1 Kings 6:12

6:12 “As for this temple you are building, if you follow ¹⁰  my rules, observe ¹¹  my regulations, and obey all my commandments, ¹²  I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David. ¹³ 

1 Kings 9:5

9:5 Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, ¹⁴  just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ ¹⁵ 

1 Kings 12:9-10

12:9 He asked them, “How do you advise me ¹⁶  to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?” ¹⁷  12:10 The young advisers with whom Rehoboam ¹⁸  had grown up said to him, “Say this to these people who have said to you, ‘Your father made us work hard, but now lighten our burden.’ ¹⁹  Say this to them: ‘I am a lot harsher than my father! ²⁰ 

1 Kings 15:19

15:19 “I want to make a treaty with you, like the one our fathers made. ²¹  See, I have sent you silver and gold as a present. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he will retreat from my land.” ²² 

1 Kings 20:34

20:34 Ben Hadad ²³  said, “I will return the cities my father took from your father. You may set up markets ²⁴  in Damascus, just as my father did in Samaria.” ²⁵  Ahab then said, “I want to make a treaty with you before I dismiss you.” ²⁶  So he made a treaty with him and then dismissed him.

¹ tn Heb “made our yoke burdensome.”

² tn Heb “but you, now, lighten the burdensome work of your father and the heavy yoke which he placed on us, and we will serve you.” In the Hebrew text the prefixed verbal form with vav (וְנַעַבְדֶךָ, [vÿna’avdekha] “and we will serve you”) following the imperative (הָקֵל [haqel], “lighten”) indicates purpose (or result). The conditional sentence used in the translation above is an attempt to bring out the logical relationship between these forms.

³ tn Heb “walk in my ways.”

⁴ tn Or “keeping.”

⁵ tn Heb “walked.”

⁶ tn Heb “I will lengthen your days.”

⁵ tn Heb “As for you, if you walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, by doing all which I commanded you, [and] you keep my rules and my regulations.” Verse 4 is actually a lengthy protasis (“if” section) of a conditional sentence, the apodosis (“then” section) of which appears in v. 5.

⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Or “trouble.”

⁹ tn Heb “walk in.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “do.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and keep all my commandments by walking in them.”

¹² tn Heb “I will establish my word with you which I spoke to David your father.”

¹¹ tn Heb “I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever.”

¹² tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from upon the throne of Israel.”

¹³ tn In the Hebrew text the verb “we will respond” is plural, although it can be understood as an editorial “we.” The ancient versions have the singular here.

¹⁴ tn Heb “Lighten the yoke which your father placed on us.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Rehoboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tn Heb “Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter upon us.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “My little one is thicker than my father’s hips.” The referent of “my little one” is not clear. The traditional view is that it refers to the little finger. As the following statement makes clear, Rehoboam’s point is that he is more harsh and demanding than his father.

¹⁷ tn Heb “[May there be] a covenant between me and you [as there was] between my father and your father.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “so he will go up from upon me.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Ben Hadad) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰ tn Heb “streets,” but this must refer to streets set up with stalls for merchants to sell their goods. See HALOT 299 s.v. חוּץ.

²¹ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

²² tn Heb “I will send you away with a treaty.” The words “Ahab then said” are supplied in the translation. There is nothing in the Hebrew text to indicate that the speaker has changed from Ben Hadad to Ahab. Some suggest adding “and he said” before “I will send you away.” Others prefer to maintain Ben Hadad as the speaker and change the statement to, “Please send me away with a treaty.”