Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Promise to Rule Well

A psalm of David.

Solomon Makes a Wise Decision

¹⁶ One day two women who were prostitutes came to Solomon. As they stood before him, ¹⁷ one of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was there with me. ¹⁸ Three days later this woman also gave birth to a baby. No one else was in the house with us; it was just the two of us. ¹⁹ One night this woman rolled over on her baby, and he died. ²⁰ So she took my son from my bed during the night while I was asleep, and she carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby in my bed. ²¹ The next morning when I got up to feed my baby, I saw that he was dead! When I looked at him more closely, I realized he was not my son.”

²² “No!” the other woman cried. “The living baby is my son, and the dead baby is yours!”

But the first woman said, “No! The dead baby is yours, and the living one is mine!” So the two women argued before the king.

²³ Then King Solomon said, “One of you says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead.’ Then the other one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and my son is alive.’”

²⁴ The king sent his servants to get a sword. When they brought it to him, ²⁵ he said, “Cut the living baby into two pieces, and give each woman half.”

²⁶ The real mother of the living child was full of love for her son. So she said to the king, “Please, my master, don’t kill him! Give the baby to her!”

But the other woman said, “Neither of us will have him. Cut him into two pieces!”

²⁷ Then King Solomon said, “Don’t kill him. Give the baby to the first woman, because she is the real mother.”

²⁸ When the people of Israel heard about King Solomon’s decision, they respected him very much. They saw he had wisdom from God to make the right decisions.

Seven Leaders Are Chosen

6 The number of followers was growing. But during this same time, the Greek-speaking followers had an argument with the other followers. The Greek-speaking widows were not getting their share of the food that was given out every day. ² The twelve apostles called the whole group of followers together and said, “It is not right for us to stop our work of teaching God’s word in order to serve tables. ³ So, brothers and sisters, choose seven of your own men who are good, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom. We will put them in charge of this work. ⁴ Then we can continue to pray and to teach the word of God.”

⁵ The whole group liked the idea, so they chose these seven men: Stephen (a man with great faith and full of the Holy Spirit), Philip,^[a] Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas (a man from Antioch who had become a follower of the Jewish religion). ⁶ Then they put these men before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands^[b] on them.

⁷ The word of God was continuing to spread. The group of followers in Jerusalem increased, and a great number of the Jewish priests believed and obeyed.