Solomon Wisely Judges

¹⁶ Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ And the one woman said, “Oh, my lord, ^[a]this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸ And 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 And this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him. 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 ^[b]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, “^[c]The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and ^[d]the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” ²⁴ And the king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ Then 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 son was the living one spoke to the king, for ^[e](A)she was deeply stirred with compassion over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” ²⁷ Then the king said, “Give ^[f]the first woman the living child, and by no means put him to death. She is his mother.” ²⁸ Then all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had ^[g]handed down, and they feared the king, for ^(B)they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.