Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G Message"Your father put a brutal yoke on us. Ease the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he imposed — and we will serve you."
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.G"Your father made our yoke crushing. Now lighten your father's hard service and the heavy yoke he laid upon us, and we will serve you."
KJV
King James VersionThy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.
BSB
Berean Standard Bible“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Footnotes
The word *'ol* (עֹל, 'yoke') is the chapter's controlling image, carrying both agricultural and political-theological weight. In the Torah, Yisra'el's enslavement in Mitzrayim is described in terms of burdensome labour (*avodah kashah*, Exod. 1:14), and YHWH's redemption is framed as breaking the yoke (Lev. 26:13). The people's request unmistakably echoes the Exodus cry — they are asking Rechovam not to be a new Pharaoh. The root *kaved* (כָּבֵד, 'heavy/weighty') describes both the physical burden and its moral gravity. FOG renders it 'crushing' to convey that force; FOG Message uses 'brutal' to foreground the human cost.
