1Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his own house, the house of Yahweh, and the wall of Jerusalem all around.
2Only, the people were sacrificing at the high places, because no house had yet been built for the name of Yahweh in those days.
3Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father; only, he was sacrificing and offering incense at the high places.
4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon would offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
5At Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
6Solomon said, “You have shown great loyal love to your servant David my father, according as he walked before you in faithfulness and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with you; and you have kept for him this great loyal love, and have given him a son sitting on his throne, as it is this day.
7And now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, but I am a young boy; I do not know how to go out or come in.
8And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a people so numerous that they cannot be counted or numbered for multitude.
9So give your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this weighty people of yours?”
10The thing was good in the eyes of the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked for yourself riches, nor have asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to hear a case rightly—
12behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been none like you before you, and after you none like you will arise.
13And also what you did not ask I have given you—both riches and honor—such that there has not been a man like you among the kings all your days.
14And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments as David your father walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
15Solomon awoke, and behold, it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and he offered up burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and he made a feast for all his servants.
16Then two women, prostitutes, came to the king and stood before him.
17One of the women said, “Please, my lord, I and this woman live in one house, and I gave birth beside her in the house.
18And on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.
19Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him.
20She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she laid him at her breast, and she laid her dead son at my breast.
21When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead. But when I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne.”
22Then the other woman said, “No! Rather, my son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.” But this one kept saying, “No! Rather, your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.” Thus they spoke before the king.
23Then the king said, “This one says, ‘This is my son, the living one, and your son is the dead one’; and that one says, ‘No! Rather, your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”
24And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought the sword before the king.
25The king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”
26Then the woman whose son was the living one spoke to the king, for her compassion grew warm over her son, and she said, “Please, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death!” But the other was saying, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; cut him in two!”
27Then the king answered and said, “Give her the living child, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”
28All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe before the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him to render justice.
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