⁹ So ^(A)give Your servant ^[a]an understanding heart to judge Your people ^(B)to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this ^[b]great people of Yours?”

God’s Answer

^10 [c]It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. ¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have ^(C)not asked for yourself ^[d]long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself ^[e]discernment to understand justice, ¹² behold, ^(D)I have done according to your words. Behold, ^(E)I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. ^13 (F)I have also given you what you have not asked, both ^(G)riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. ^14 (H)If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will ^(I)prolong your days.”

¹⁵ Then ^(J)Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and ^(K)made a feast for all his servants.

Solomon Wisely Judges

¹⁶ Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, ^[f]this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸ It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. ¹⁹ This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it. ²⁰ So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. ²¹ When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.” ²² Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But ^[g]the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “^[h]The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and ^[i]the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” ²⁴ The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ^[j](L)she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” ²⁷ Then the king said, “Give ^[k]the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had ^[l]handed down, they feared the king, for ^(M)they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to ^[m]administer justice.

¹⁷ But the wisdom ^(A)from above is first ^(B)pure, then ^(C)peaceable, ^(D)gentle, ^[a]reasonable, ^(E)full of mercy and good fruits, ^(F)unwavering, without ^(G)hypocrisy.