1 Kings 3

1Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to live in the city of David until he had finished building his own palace, the house of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem. 2The people, however, were still offering sacrifices at the high places, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD in those days.

3Solomon loved the LORD and lived by the statutes of his father David, except that he too offered sacrifices and burned offerings at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because it was the most important high place. On that altar Solomon offered up a thousand burnt offerings. 5At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” 6Solomon answered, “You showed great faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he lived his life before you with faithfulness and righteousness and an upright heart. And you have kept this great faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as he does today. 7Now, the LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little boy; I do not know how to go out and come in as a leader. 8And your servant is here among your chosen people, a people so great that they cannot be numbered or counted. 9So give your servant a heart that listens, to judge your people and to tell good from evil. For who is able to judge so great a people as 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 a long life for yourself, or wealth, or the death of your enemies, but have asked for understanding so that you can listen to cases and judge them justly, 12So I will do what you have asked. I am giving you a wise and discerning heart. No one before you has been like you, and no one after you will ever rise up who is like you. 13I am also giving you what you did not ask for: both wealth and honor. As long as you live, no other king will be your equal. 14And if you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”

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

16Some time later two prostitutes came to the king and stood in his presence. 17The first woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I share one house. I had a baby while she was there with me. 18Three days after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, just the two of us. 19This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on top of him. 20So in the middle of the night she rose and took my son from my side while your servant slept. She laid him in her arms, and she laid her dead son in my arms. 21When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that he was not the son I had given birth to.” 22But the other woman said, “No! The living one is my son, and the dead one is yours.” The first woman kept saying, “No! The dead one is your son, and the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king. 23The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is the one who is alive, and your son is dead,’ and that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead, and mine is alive.’”

24Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword to the king. 25Then the king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.” 26Then the mother of the living child spoke to the king, for her love for her son burned within her. “Please, my lord,” she said, “let her have the living baby! Do not put him to death!” But the other woman kept saying, “He shall belong to neither of us. Cut him in two!” 27Then the king answered, “Let the woman who pleaded for him have the living baby. Do not put him to death. She is his mother.” 28All Israel heard about the judgment the king had given, and they held him in awe, for they saw that God’s wisdom was in him, so that he could do justice.