1 Kings 3:16-28

Solomon's Wisdom and Prosperity

¹⁶ Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king; ¹⁷ And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her side in the house. ¹⁸ And three days after the birth of my child, this woman had a child: we were together, no other-person was with us in the house but we two only. ¹⁹ In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was the cause of its death. ²⁰ And she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms. ²¹ And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I saw that it was not my son. ²² And the other woman said, No; but the living child is my son and the dead one yours. But the first said, No; the dead child is your son and the living one mine. So they kept on talking before the king. ²³ Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son, and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son is the dead one and mine is the living. ²⁴ Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a sword before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two and one half given to one woman and one to the other. ²⁶ Then the mother of the living child came forward, for her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two. ²⁷ Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child, and do not put it to death; she is the mother of it. ²⁸ And news of this decision which the king had made went through all Israel; and they had fear of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to give decisions.