But Rehoboam ignored the counsel that his elder advisors had given him. Instead, he consulted the younger men who had grown up with him and who worked for him.

"This is what you should tell these people who asked you "Your father made our burden heavy, but you must make it lighter for us!'" the young men who grew up with Rehoboam replied. "Tell them, "My little finger will be thicker than my father's whole body!

When David had grown very old, they covered him with blankets, but he could not keep warm,

"I'm headed down the road that everyone who lives on earth travels, so be strong and demonstrate that you're a grown man

Then, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, he went up to burn incense on the altar that he had set up in Bethel, thus beginning the festival that he had made up out of his own heart for the Israelis.

He described trees everything from cedars that grow in Lebanon to hyssop that grows on a garden wall. He described animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.