The King Said, Come to Me Again in Three Days

King rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before solomon, his father, while he was yet alive. And they said to him, if you will be kind to this people and please them then they will be your servants for ever. But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. He told them: My father made our yoke heavy, but please lighten it for us. Thus shall you say to them, my little finger is thicker than my father's loins. So when all israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people