The 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.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 10. Finger is not expressed in Hebrew or Septuagint but the Syr. and Josephus agree with the Vulg. In Paral. we read loins, instead of back. Hebrew and Septuagint my little (Prot. supply finger). Septuagint “my littleness,” μικοτης; but in Paral. finger is added. Bible.—Chal. “my weakness is stronger than my father’s strength.” The loins denote strength. Roboam did not use these boastings and insolent expressions: but he adopted their spirit. Calmet.—He insinuates that he was twice as old as his father when he began to reign, (Pineda vii. 24,) or he uses a proverbial exaggeration. Delrio. adag. 202. Menochius.