⁷ They answered, “·Be kind [^LIf you are fair] to these people. If you please them and give them a ·kind [cordial] answer, they will serve you always.”

⁸ But Rehoboam rejected ·this advice [^Lthe advice/counsel of the elders]. Instead, he ·asked [consulted] the young men who had grown up with him and who ·served as his advisers [served/attended him]. ⁹ Rehoboam asked them, “What is your ·advice [counsel]? How should we answer these people who said to me, ‘·Don’t make us work as hard as your father did’ [^LLighten the yoke your father put on us]?”