Solomon Wisely Judges

¹⁶ Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ The one woman said, “Pardon me, my lord: ^[a]this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child ^[b]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 Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! But when I examined him closely 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 ^[c]the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” So they spoke before the king.

²³ Then the king said, “^[d]The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and ^[e]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 And the king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ But the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ^[f](A)she was deeply stirred over her son, and she said, “Pardon me, my lord! Give her the living child, and by no means kill him!” But the other woman was saying, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; cut him!” ²⁷ Then the king replied, “Give ^[g]the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ When all Israel heard about the judgment which the king had ^[h]handed down, they feared the king, because ^(B)they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to ^[i]administer justice.