1 Kings 3:13-26

¹³I am also giving you what you did not ask for, wealth and status—so much so that no king will compare to you for the whole of your life.

¹⁴And if you follow my ways by keeping my laws and my commands, as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”

¹⁵Then Solomon woke up and realized he'd had a dream. He went back to Jerusalem, and stood in front of the Ark of the Lord's Agreement and he presented burnt offerings and friendship offerings, and he held a feast for all his officials.

¹⁶Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him for judgment.

¹⁷One of the women spoke up, saying, “If it please Your Majesty: I share a house with this woman. I had a baby while she was living in the house.

¹⁸Three days after the birth of my baby, this woman also had a baby. We were together; there was no one else in the house, just the two of us.

¹⁹During the night this woman's son died because she rolled over on him.

²⁰She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while I was sleeping. She lay him close beside her to cuddle him, and she lay her dead son close beside me.

²¹When I got up in the morning to nurse my son I saw that he was dead. When I looked closely at him in the light I realized it wasn't my son.”

²²The other woman argued, “No! My son is the one that's alive. Your son is the one that's dead.” The first woman objected, “No! Your son is the one that's dead. My son is the one that's alive.” They went on quarrelling in front of the king.

²³The king intervened, saying, “So this woman says ‘My son is the one that's alive. Your son is the one that's dead,’ while the other woman says, ‘No! Your son is the one that's dead. My son is the one that's alive.’”

²⁴“Bring me a sword,” the king ordered. So they brought him a sword.

²⁵“Cut the child that's alive in two, and give half to one woman and half to another,” he commanded.

²⁶But the woman whose son was alive had so much love for him as a mother that she cried out to the king, “Please, Your Majesty, give her the boy! Don't kill him!” But the other woman said, “He won't be mine or yours—cut him in two!”