1 Kings 3:3-22

³Solomon loved Yahweh, and he obeyed all the instructions that his father David had given him. But he also offered sacrifices and burned incense at various altars.

⁴One day the king went to Gibeon city to offer a sacrifice there, because that was where the most famous/important altar was. In previous years he had offered hundreds of sacrifices on that altar.

⁵That night, Yahweh appeared to him in a dream. He asked Solomon, “What would you like me to give to you?”

⁶Solomon replied, “You always greatly and faithfully loved my father David, who served you well. You did that because he ◄was faithful to/faithfully obeyed► you and acted righteously and honestly toward you. And you have showed how greatly and faithfully you loved him by giving to him me, his son, and now I am ruling MTY as he did before he died.

⁷Now, Yahweh my God, you have appointed me to be the king like my father was. But I am very young, like a little child MET. I do not know how to lead/rule my people at all IDM.

⁸I am here among the people whom you have chosen. They are a very large group of people; there are very, very many of them, with the result that no one can count them DOU.

⁹So please enable me to think clearly, in order that I may rule your people well. Enable me to know what is good and what is evil. If you do not do that, I will never RHQ be able to rule this great group of people who belong to you.”

¹⁰Yahweh was very pleased that Solomon had requested that.

¹¹God said to him, “You did not request that you live for many years or that you become very rich or that you be able to kill all your enemies. Instead, you have requested that I enable you to be wise, in order that you will be able to know and to do what is right while you govern these people.

¹²So, I will certainly do what you requested. I will enable you to be very wise DOU. The result will be that no one who has lived before you or who will live after you will be as wise as you are.

¹³I will also give you things that you did not request: I will enable you to become very rich and honored, as long as you live. You will be richer and more honored than any other king.

¹⁴If you conduct your life IDM as I want you to, and if you obey all my laws and commandments, as your father David did, I will enable you to live for many years.”

¹⁵Then Solomon awoke, and he realized that God had spoken to him in a dream. Then he went to Jerusalem and stood in front of the Sacred Tent where the Sacred Chest was, and he offered many sacrifices that were completely burned on the altar and offerings to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. Then he made a feast for all his officials.

¹⁶One day two prostitutes came and stood in front of King Solomon.

¹⁷One of them said, “Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was there in the house.

¹⁸Three days after my baby was born, this woman also gave birth to a baby. Only the two of us were in the house; there was no one else there.

¹⁹But one night this woman's baby died because she accidentally rolled on top of her baby while sleeping and smothered it.

²⁰So she got up at midnight and took my baby boy who was lying beside me while I was sleeping. She carried him to her bed and brought her dead baby and put it in my bed.

²¹When I awoke the next morning and was ready to nurse my baby, I saw that it was dead. But when I looked at it closely in the morning light, I saw that it was not my baby!”

²²But the other woman said, “That is not true! The baby that is alive is mine, and the baby that is dead is yours!” Then the first woman said, “No, the dead baby is yours, and the one that is alive is mine!” And they continued to argue in front of the king.