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Solomon’s Advisors: Listen to their concerns, show them kindness, and please them. Then they will be your subjects and will always respect you.

But Rehoboam did not listen to the advisors’ recommendation. Instead he asked the opinions of his childhood friends who were more likely to give him the advice that he wanted to hear.

Rehoboam: How do you think I should answer these people’s request that I reduce the amount of work my father required of them?

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They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer,(A) they will always be your servants.”

But Rehoboam rejected(B) the advice the elders(C) gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

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And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever.

But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him.

And he said unto them, What advice give ye that we may return answer to this people, which have spoken to me, saying, Ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us?

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