1 Kings 3:16-28

Living Bible

¹⁶ Soon afterwards two young prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled.

^17-18 “Sir,” one of them began, “we live in the same house, just the two of us, and recently I had a baby. When it was three days old, this woman’s baby was born too. ¹⁹ But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it in her sleep and smothered it. ²⁰ Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep, and laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. ²¹ And in the morning when I tried to feed my baby it was dead! But when it became light outside, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”

²² Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was her son, and the living child is mine.”

“No,” the first woman said, “the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” And so they argued back and forth before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight: both of you claim the living child, and each says that the dead child belongs to the other. ²⁴ All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king. ²⁵ Then he said, “Divide the living child in two and give half to each of these women!”

²⁶ Then the woman who really was the mother of the child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, sir! Give her the child—don’t kill him!”

But the other woman said, “All right, it will be neither yours nor mine; divide it between us!”

²⁷ Then the king said, “Give the baby to the woman who wants him to live, for she is the mother!”

²⁸ Word of the king’s decision spread quickly throughout the entire nation, and all the people were awed as they realized the great wisdom God had given him.