Now my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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Now my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’ ”
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And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
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And now whereas my father did burden you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.'
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to 1 Kings 12:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 1:13-14 The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
- Exodus 5:5-9 Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. You shall require from them the number of the bricks which they made before. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, saying, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it. Don’t let them pay any attention to lying words.”
- Exodus 5:18 Go therefore now, and work; for no straw shall be given to you; yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks!”
- 1 Samuel 8:18 You will cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day.”
- 1 Kings 12:14 and spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.”
- 2 Chronicles 16:10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
- Isaiah 58:6 “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
- Jeremiah 27:11 But the nation that brings their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will let remain in their own land,’ says Yahweh; ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’ ” ’ ”
- Jeremiah 28:13-14 “Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “You have broken the bars of wood, but you have made in their place bars of iron.” For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. I have also given him the animals of the field.” ’ ”
- Ezekiel 2:6 You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
- Revelation 9:3-10 Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. They were given power, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person. In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions. They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war. They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, scorpions.
Or, scorpions.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ki 12:11 And now whereas my father did lade…
1Ki 12:11 And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
Ver. 11. I will chastise you with scorpions] {a} That is, With briers and thorns; as Gideon taught the men of Penuel: or, With torturing whips that sting like a scorpion; such as the Spaniards brought great store of, as it is said, in 1588; not sparing to sing of Queen Elizabeth and her England,
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“ Tu quae suevisti Romanas temnere leges,
Hispano disces subdere colla iugo. ”
{a} Flagris aculeatis. - Vatab.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I will add to your yoke, i.e. make it…
I will add to your yoke, i.e. make it heavier and stronger, both to punish your petulancy, and to curb and restrain you from seditious attempts.
With scorpions, i.e. with such whips as will sting you like scorpions: if you proceed in these courses, I will most severely punish you for it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam…
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day,.... Jeroboam came to him at the head of the people, being the head of the faction, and designed for their king:
as the king had appointed, saying, come to me again the third day; see Kg1 12:5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. Chastise you with scorpions] Should you rebel,…
Verse 11. Chastise you with scorpions] Should you rebel, or become disaffected, my father's whip shall be a scorpion in my hand. His was chastisement, mine shall be punishment. St. Isidore, and after him Calmet and others, assert that the scorpion was a sort of severe whip, the lashes of which were armed with iron points, that sunk into and tore the flesh. We know that the scorpion was a military engine among the Romans for shooting arrows, which, being poisoned, were likened to the scorpion's sting, and the wound it inflicted.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Scorpions - By this word some understand whips having…
Scorpions - By this word some understand whips having leaden balls at the ends of their lashes with hooks projecting from them; others the thorny stem of the eggplant, or “the scorpion plant.” But it seems best to regard the expression as a figure of speech.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Scorpions. Chaldean, "thorns." Hebrew has both significations. Like a…
Scorpions. Chaldean, "thorns." Hebrew has both significations. Like a tyrant, Roboam threatens to beat the people with sharp thorns. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain whips . . . scorpions--The latter [instruments], as contrasted…
whips . . . scorpions--The latter [instruments], as contrasted with the former, are supposed to mean thongs thickly set with sharp iron points, used in the castigation of slaves.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 11. Whips… scorpions — As the scorpion — an…
11. Whips… scorpions — As the scorpion — an instrument of torture with many lashes, like the legs of the animal of this name, and each lash armed with sharp points to lacerate the flesh — is a more terrible scourge than the common whip, so will my severity exceed my father’s.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11. with whips] We have no record of such…
11. with whips] We have no record of such an act on the part of Solomon, and it may be the phrase is only metaphorical, to express a light degree of chastisement in comparison of what they might hereafter expect. But scourging men to urge them in compulsory labour is not unknown in despotic countries.
with scorpions] Most likely, if the words are to be taken literally, some sort of lash on which metal points were fixed so that each blow might wound like a scorpion’s sting.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) The scorpion is probably (like the Roman fiagellum)…
(11) The scorpion is probably (like the Roman fiagellum) a whip, the lash of which is loaded with weights and sharp points.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And now whereas my father did lade you with…
And now whereas my father did lade you with or, lay upon you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips It is probable that the expression is not entirely figurative. It is quite possible that the levies of Amorites, Hittites, (1Ki_9:20) etc., had been kept at their toils by the lash, but I will chastise you with scorpions. "The very words have stings" (Hall). It is generally held that there is here "no allusion whatever to the animal, but to some instrument of scourging unless, indeed, the expression is a mere figure" (Dict. Bib. 3. p. 1161). Perhaps it is safer to understand it as a figure of speech, althoughthe scorpion, unlike the serpent, is little like, or adapted to use as, a lash. Probably it was in the pain the whip caused that the resemblance lay. (Rom_9:5) All the commentators mention that the later Romans used a whip called a "scorpio," and cite Isidore (Orig. 5, 27) in proof. Gesenius, Keil, al. understand "whips with barbed points, like the point of a scorpion"s sting;" the Rabbins, Virgae spinis instructae; others, the thorny stem of the eggplant, by some called the "scorpion plant." Compare our use of the word "cat." "The yoke and whips go together, and are the signs of labouring service (Ecc 30:26, or 33:27)" Bahr.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 12:11 scorpions: This was probably a type of whip…
12:11 scorpions: This was probably a type of whip that contained barbs or nails; the wounds inflicted by this weapon were like a scorpion’s sting.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.