2 Chronicles 10:4

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.”

²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

²⁰Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

⁴For 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.

²⁵Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

²³In 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.

¹¹He 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. ¹²He 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. ¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers, to be cooks, and to be bakers. ¹⁴He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, even your best, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵He will take one tenth of your seed and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers and to his servants. ¹⁶He will take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys, and assign them to his own work. ¹⁷He will take one tenth of your flocks; and you will be his servants. ¹⁸You will cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves; and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains,

¹³The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, ¹⁴and 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.

⁶I 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.