Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it^(A) by their good life, by deeds^(B) done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

⁴ Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he.^(A)

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders^(A) who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.

⁷ They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer,^(B) they will always be your servants.”

⁸ But Rehoboam rejected^(C) the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. ⁹ 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’?”

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. ¹¹ My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

¹² Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” ¹³ The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, ¹⁴ he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged^(D) you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord,^(E) to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah^(F) the Shilonite.