1 Kings 3:16-27

Solomon's Wisdom and Prosperity

¹⁶ Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house. ¹⁸ It happened the third day after I delivered, that this woman delivered also. We were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house. ¹⁹ This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it. ²⁰ She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. ²¹ When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore.” ²² The other woman said, “No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son.”

This said, “No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king. ²³ Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead;’ and the other says, ‘No; but your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” ²⁴ The king said, “Get me a sword.” They brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it!”

But the other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it.” ²⁷ Then the king answered, “Give her the living child, and in no way kill it. She is its mother.”