“Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”
Parallel Translations
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“Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”
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Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.
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'Thy father made our yoke grievous; now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.'
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to 2 Chronicles 10:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 12:4 “Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”
- 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 2:23 In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
- 1 Samuel 8:11-18 He said, “This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them as his servants, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, to be cooks, and to be bakers. He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, even their best, and give them to his servants. He will take one tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers, and to his servants. He will take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys, and assign them to his own work. He will take one tenth of your flocks; and you will be his servants. 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 4:20 Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.
- 1 Kings 4:25 Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
- 1 Kings 5:15 Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains;
- 1 Kings 9:22 But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.
- Isaiah 47:6 I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.
- Matthew 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
- Matthew 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
- 1 John 5:3 For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (6 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, handled us rudely, it seemeth that God…
That is, handled us rudely, it seemeth that God hardened their hearts, so that they thus murmured without cause: which declareth also the inconstancy of the people.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Grievous - It is probable, when Solomon had declined…
Grievous - It is probable, when Solomon had declined from God, that God left him to himself to act thus impolitically.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. ease thou somewhat … put upon us] R.V.…
4. ease thou somewhat … put upon us] R.V. make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter (as in 1 Kin.). The “service” complained of is described (in part) in 1Ki_5:13-14 (no parallel in Chron.). Cp. 2Ch_8:9 (= 1Ki_9:22), note.
and we will serve thee] The people claim their ancient right to a voice in the appointment of a king; cp. 1Sa_11:14-15 (Saul) and 2Sa_5:1-3 (David).
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 (4) Made . . . grievous . . .…
(4) Made . . . grievous . . . ease thou.—Made hard . . . lighten.
Now therefore.—And now. Kings and the Syriac here, “and thou now”—w’attah ‘attah: an assonance which the chronicler has avoided, at the expense of the proper emphasis, which lies on thou. (Some Hebrew MSS. and the Vulgate and Arabic read, and thou.) (Comp. 2Ch_10:10, and thou . . . lighten it.)
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 The grievous servitude heavy yoke. These may, for conciseness"…
The grievous servitude heavy yoke. These may, for conciseness" sake, be supposed to correspond with the naturally enough hated "forced labour" (1Ki_4:6, 7 5:13-16 11:27, 28) and the burdensome "taxes" (1Ki_4:19-28) which had not failed to become more odious to the people as familiarity with them grew. The refreshing New Testament contrast to all this (Mat_11:28-30) will occur to every memory.
Vers. 4-14.
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The legacy of brilliance, etc.
We have here
I THE LEGACY OF BRILLIANCE. "Thy father made our yoke grievous" (ver. 4). No man ever had a nobler opportunity than Solomon had. His father handed to him a united nation, a country whose enemies were subdued, the kindly and helpful shadow of a great name and a beloved disposition and an illustrious career. He was endowed by God with great talent and surpassing wealth. He had before him an object of honourable ambition, which would be acceptable to Heaven and gratifying to his subjects. But, instead of pursuing the path of usefulness and the prize of a people"s gratitude, he aimed at overwhelming splendour. And what did he gain by his pursuit? Forty years of selfish gratification, not undimmed (we may be sure) by many cares, disappointments, difficulties, in his home (or harem) and in his court; and when he died he left a kingdom less compact, a dynasty less secure than he found when he took the reins of government from his father David. All his brilliance ended in a popular sense of injury, in a general consciousness that the people had been weighted with needlessly heavy burdens, with a store of suppressed popular discontent ready to burst out and blaze forth at the first opportunity. Brilliance is a very fascinating thing, whether it be on the throne or in parliamentary government, or in the courts of law, or in business, or in the school. But what is its end? To what issues does it lead? Usually it conducts to poverty, to serious error, to discomfiture, often to a catastrophe. But, where brilliance breaks down and is ruined, steady and conscientious faithfulness, under the guidance of heavenly wisdom, will succeed will lead on to a real enrichment, to a lasting safety, to an honour that may be accepted and enjoyed.
II THE WISDOM OF CONTEMPLATION AND CONSULTATION. "He said Come again unto me after three days And he took counsel" (vers. 5, 6). It is, indeed, true that no good ultimately came of this delay and this consultation. But that was because Rehoboam consulted the wrong men. He did well in asking for time and in appealing to others at this critical juncture. Supposing that this demand took him by surprise, nothing would have been more foolish than to have given a reply offhand. A remonstrance is very likely to excite anger in the first instance, and no wise man will come to an important decision when he is out of temper. It is in the hour of complete self-control that we should settle grave matters affecting our destiny. Moreover, we do well to take the judgment of others. It was due to the nation that his father"s wise statesmen should be asked for their advice in a great national crisis. It was due to himself that his inexperience should secure the inestimable advantage of their ripe sagacity. It is always due to ourselves that we get the additional light which can be gained from an impartial judgment. No man can possibly look at his own affairs in a perfectly pure atmosphere; no man can take an entirely unbiassed view of his own temporal interests. Men who look from outside see what we cannot possibly see, and their counsel is sure to be worth our consideration. "The physician who prescribes for himself, or the lawyer who advises himself, has a fool for his patient or for his client." This saying will hold good in every department of human action. Take time for thought, and invite the frank and full counsel of your true friends.
III OUR TRUE COUNSELLORS. These are:
1. They who have had an opportunity of knowing. The young men whomRehoboam consulted could have given him very good advice on some subjects, on those that belonged to their period of life athletics, fashions, etc.; but of statesmanship what could they tell? We should take care to consult those who know, who have learned in the best schools.
2. They who give us frank rather than palatable counsel; who will tell uswhat they believe to be for the best, rather than that which will humour our own fancies.
3. They whose counsel makes for peace rather than for strife. There aretimes when the wisest will be for war, but in nine cases out of ten the true Christian advocate will urge conciliation and concord. C.
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 10:4 Rehoboam was not powerful enough to enforce taxation…
10:4 Rehoboam was not powerful enough to enforce taxation over the northern tribes, so they demanded concessions to remain under his rule.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.