^8 (A)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(B)place which the Lord your God chooses.

⁵ “But you shall seek the ^(A)place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His ^(B)dwelling^[a] place; and there you shall go.

¹¹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Now, ^(A)ask the priests concerning the law, saying,

^17 (A)You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for ^(B)the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, ^(C)bring to me, and I will hear it.’

⁸ Moreover in Jerusalem, for the judgment of the Lord and for controversies, Jehoshaphat ^(A)appointed some of the Levites and priests, and some of the chief fathers of Israel, ^[a]when they returned to Jerusalem. ⁹ And he commanded them, saying, “Thus you shall act ^(B)in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and with a loyal heart: ^10 (C)Whatever case comes to you from your brethren who dwell in their cities, whether of bloodshed or offenses against law or commandment, against statutes or ordinances, you shall warn them, lest they trespass against the Lord and ^(D)wrath come upon ^(E)you and your brethren. Do this, and you will not be guilty.

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.

¹⁷ then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, ^(A)before the priests and the judges who serve in those days.