⁷ “If you are kind to these people and try to please them by speaking gently with them,” they replied, “they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But Rehoboam ignored the advice the elders gave him and instead sought the counsel of the young advisors who had grown up with him and now served him. ⁹ “What do you advise?” he asked them. “How should we respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the workload your father demanded from us’?”