And the young men who had grown up with him said to him: For the young men who had grown up with him, see the comments on 2Chr 10.8. Good News Translation uses only the pronoun “They,” while New Living Translation and Revised English Bible shorten this expression to “The young men.” Said to him is literally “said to him saying.” In this context the verb said may be better rendered “replied” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation) or “answered” (New Century Version).
Thus shall you speak to the people who said to you, “Your father made our yoke heavy, but do you lighten it for us”: See the comments on 2Chr 10.4. For reasons of English style Good News Translation uses only the pronoun “them” for this whole expression. This certainly simplifies the structure and helps to resolve the problem of one of the embedded quotations in this verse. However, if translators follow Good News Translation here, they should at least say “those people,” since the young men are looking down on the people.
Thus shall you say to them introduces the quotation that follows. New Jerusalem Bible says “This is the right thing to say to them.” For some translators these words are an unnecessary intrusion into the direct discourse of the verse since they seem to say the same thing as Thus shall you speak to this people, which introduces the quotation earlier in the verse. If a literal rendering of the Hebrew structure is unnatural in the receptor language, then these words may be omitted.
My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins: These words that the young men tell Rehoboam to speak are in the form of a proverb. The general sense is clear: the easiest measure that Rehoboam will impose on the people will be far worse that the hardest measures to which his father subjected them. Compare Contemporary English Version: “Compared to me, my father was weak.” Little finger translates a single Hebrew word that occurs in the Old Testament only here and in the parallel text of 1 Kgs 12.10. It comes from the root meaning “little,” but the exact meaning here is uncertain. It has traditionally been translated little finger, but it may be a euphemism for “penis.” Even among those interpreters who follow the traditional rendering, there are some who suggest that it may be a euphemism for the male sexual organ. Loins translates a Hebrew noun that refers to the area of the body which unites the upper and lower parts of the body. Translations include loins (the hip area), “waist” (New International Version, New Living Translation), “arm” (Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie), “thighs” (Moffatt), and “body” (New American Bible). The meaning of this whole expression is almost certainly “I will be much harder on you than my father ever was.” But to express the meaning in a nonfigurative way would lose something of its significance and would make the following verse almost totally redundant.
A model that avoids the embedded quotations in this verse is:
• They gave him the following suggestion/idea of what he should say to the people who had made the request: “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .