King Rehoboam spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying: King Rehoboam may be expressed by a pronoun (so Good News Translation), depending on how the previous verse has been translated. The redundant expression spoke … saying will have to be avoided in some languages.

My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions: This quotation is nearly identical to the one in verse 11 (see the comments there). Hebrew manuscripts have two different readings for the first clause of this quotation as follows: (1) In agreement with the parallel text in 1 Kgs 12.14, some Hebrew manuscripts and the ancient versions read “My father made your yoke heavy” (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Moffatt). (2) Other Hebrew manuscripts say “I will make your yoke heavy.” These other manuscripts are followed by Bible en français courant, which begins this quotation with “I will impose a heavy yoke on you, and I will make it heavier and heavier…” (similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle Bible Segond). Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to the reading “I will make your yoke heavy” and argues that the other reading is a harmonization to the parallel text in 1 Kgs 12.14.

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 .