2 Chronicles 10:14
And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
Rehoboam set aside the people's plea for relief and reform and chose instead to follow the counsel of the young men around him. In doing so he declared his intent to lay still heavier burdens on a people already heavily burdened and to rule over them with even greater harshness. That answer did not break with the past but carried forward and intensified the oppressive policies established under Solomon's reign. By persisting in that hard course he helped provoke the rebellion that rent the kingdom in two.