1 Kings 3

1Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his own palace, the house of Yahweh, and the wall around Jerusalem.

2The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because no house had yet been built for the name of Yahweh in those days.

3Solomon loved Yahweh and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places.

4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

5At Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream at night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”

6Solomon said, “You have shown great steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and with an upright heart toward you. And you have kept this great steadfast love for him and have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.

7Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, but I am only a young boy. I do not know how to go out or come in.

8Your servant is here among your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted.

9So give your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked for this.

11So God said to him, “Because you have asked for this, and have not asked for long life for yourself, or asked for riches for yourself, or asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for understanding to discern what is just,

12I am now doing what you have asked. I am giving you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, and no one like you will arise after you.

13I am also giving you what you have not asked for, both riches and honor, so that no one among the kings will be your equal all your days.

14And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will give you a long life.”

15Then Solomon woke up, and he realized it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

16Later two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

17One of the women said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a baby while she was there in the house.

18On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only the two of us were in the house.

19During the night this woman’s son died, because she lay on him.

20So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep. 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, there he was, dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning, I saw that he was not the son I had borne.”

22But the other woman said, “No! The living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” The first woman kept saying, “No! The dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” So they argued 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! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”

24So the king said, “Bring me a sword.” And they brought a sword before the king.

25Then the king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.”

26The woman whose son was alive spoke up to the king, for her heart went out to her son. She said, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”

27Then the king answered, “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him. She is his mother.”

28When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.