² Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was, whenever anyone who had a ^(A)lawsuit^[a] came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, “What city are you from?” And he would say, “Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel.”

Jesus Handed Over to Pontius Pilate^(A)

27 When morning came, ^(B)all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.

Solomon’s Wise Judgment

¹⁶ Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and ^(A)stood before him. ¹⁷ And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. ¹⁸ Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; ^[a]no one was with us in the house, except 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 my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. ²¹ And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”

²² Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”

And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”

Thus they spoke before the king.

²³ And the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ” ²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”

²⁶ Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for ^(B)she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”

But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”

²⁷ So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”

²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the ^(C)wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

⁸ Then the king arose and sat in the ^(A)gate. And they told all the people, saying, “There is the king, sitting in the gate.” So all the people came before the king.

For everyone of Israel had ^(B)fled to his tent.

Boaz Redeems Ruth

4 Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, ^(A)the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, “Come aside, ^[a]friend, sit down here.” So he came aside and sat down.

²⁶ So they judged the people at all times; the ^(A)hard^[a] cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.

¹⁶ When they have ^(A)a ^[a]difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”