He did what his friends told him to do. Rehoboam said, “My father forced you to work hard. So I will give you even more work. My father used whips to force you to work. I will beat you with whips that have sharp pieces of metal in them [151] to cut you!”
All the people of Israel saw that the new king refused to listen to them. So the people said to the king: “Are we part of David’s family? No! Do we get any of Jesse’s land? No! So Israel, let’s go to our own homes. Let David’s son rule his own people!” So the people of Israel went home.
But the people in Jerusalem were very quiet. They did not say a word to the commander because King Hezekiah had given them a command. He said, “Don’t say anything to him.”
Don’t do wrong to a person to pay him back for doing wrong to you. Or don’t say something bad to a person to pay him back for saying something bad to you. But \{ask God to\} bless that person. Do this, because you yourselves were called to receive a blessing.