2 Chronicles 10:5

10:5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then return to me.” So the people went away.

2 Chronicles 10:7

10:7 They said to him, “If you are fair to these people, grant their request, and are cordial to them, they will be your servants from this time forward.” ¹ 

2 Chronicles 10:14

10:14 and followed the advice of the younger ones. He said, “My father imposed heavy demands on you; ²  I will make them even heavier. ³  My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.” ⁴ 

2 Chronicles 10:9-10

10:9 He asked them, “How do you advise me to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?” ⁵  10:10 The young advisers with whom Rehoboam ⁶  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’ ⁷  – say this to them: ‘I am a lot harsher than my father! ⁸ 

2 Chronicles 18:5

18:5 So the king of Israel assembled 400 prophets and asked them, “Should we attack Ramoth Gilead or not?” ⁹  They said, “Attack! God ¹⁰  will hand it over to the king.”

2 Chronicles 23:14

23:14 Jehoiada the priest sent out the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, and ordered them, “Bring her outside the temple to the guards. ¹¹  Put the sword to anyone who follows her.” The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord’s temple. ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “If today you are for good to these people and you are favorable to them and speak to them good words, they will be your servants all the days.”

¹ tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will make heavy your yoke,” but many medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient textual witnesses have, “my father made heavy your yoke.”

² tn Heb “but I will add to your yoke.”

³ tn Heb “My father punished you with whips, but I [will punish you] with scorpions.” “Scorpions” might allude to some type of torture, but more likely it refers to a type of whip that inflicts an especially biting, painful wound.

¹ tn Heb “Lighten the yoke which your father placed on us.”

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Rehoboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter upon us.”

³ 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 (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). As the following statement makes clear, Rehoboam’s point is that he is more harsh and demanding than his father.

¹ tn Heb “Should we go against Ramoth Gilead for war or should I refrain?”

² tn Though Jehoshaphat had requested an oracle from “the Lord” (יְהוָה, yÿhvah, “Yahweh”), the Israelite prophets stop short of actually using this name and substitute the title הָאֱלֹהִים (ha’elohim, “the God”). This ambiguity may explain in part Jehoshaphat’s hesitancy and caution (vv. 7-8). He seems to doubt that the 400 are genuine prophets of the Lord.

¹ tn Heb “ranks.”

² tn Heb “for the priest had said, ‘Do not put her to death in the house of the Lord.’”