Proverbs 11:14

⁶for by wise guidance you wage your war, and victory is in many advisors.

²²Where there is no counsel, plans fail; but in a multitude of counselors they are established.

¹⁸Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!

²²Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, but the punishment of fools is their folly.

¹Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ²When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt; ³and they sent and called him), Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 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.”

⁵He said to them, “Depart for three days, then come back to me.” So the people departed.

⁶King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, “What counsel do you give me to answer these people?”

⁷They replied, “If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them, and answer them with good words, then they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he abandoned the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. ⁹He said to them, “What counsel do you give, that we may answer these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Make the yoke that your father put on us lighter’?”

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Tell these people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter to us’—tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. ¹¹Now 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.’”

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king asked, saying, “Come to me again the third day.” ¹³The king answered the people roughly, and abandoned the counsel of the old men which they had given him, ¹⁴and 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.”

¹⁵So the king didn’t listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about from the LORD, that he might establish his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king didn’t listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What portion have we in David? We don’t have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, David.” So Israel departed to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. ¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel rebelled against David’s house to this day.

⁶The apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter. ⁷When there had been much discussion, Peter rose up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you that by my mouth the nations should hear the word of the Good News and believe. ⁸God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us. ⁹He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. ¹⁰Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? ¹¹But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,^[+] just as they are.”

¹²All the multitude kept silence, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul reporting what signs and wonders God had done among the nations through them. ¹³After they were silent, James answered, “Brothers, listen to me. ¹⁴Simeon has reported how God first visited the nations to take out of them a people for his name. ¹⁵This agrees with the words of the prophets. As it is written, ¹⁶‘After these things I will return. I will again build the tabernacle of David, which has fallen. I will again build its ruins. I will set it up ¹⁷that the rest of men may seek after the Lord: all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things.’

¹⁸“All of God’s works are known to him from eternity. ¹⁹Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood. ²¹For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings”? ¹²Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt. ¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, those who are the cornerstone of her tribes. ¹⁴The LORD has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.