Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song of David.

Proof of Solomon’s Wisdom

¹⁶ One day two prostitutes came to Solomon and stood before the king. ¹⁷ One of the women said, “Sir, this woman and I live in the same house. We were both pregnant and ready to give birth to our babies. I had my baby while she was there with me. ¹⁸ Three days later she also gave birth to her baby. There was no one else in the house with us, just the two of us. ¹⁹ One night while this woman was asleep with her baby, the baby died. ²⁰ That night while I was asleep, she took my son from my bed and carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby in my bed. ²¹ In the morning I woke up and was about to feed the baby when I saw he was dead. When I looked at him more closely, I saw that he was not my baby.”

²² But the other woman said, “No! The dead baby is yours, and the one still alive is mine!”

But the first woman said, “No, you are wrong! The dead baby is yours! The one that is still alive is mine.” So the two women argued in front of the king.

²³ Then King Solomon said, “Each of you says that the living baby is your own and that the dead baby belongs to the other woman.” ²⁴ Then King Solomon sent his servant to get a sword. ²⁵ He told the servant, “Cut the living baby in two and give one half of the baby to each woman.”

²⁶ The second woman said, “Yes, cut him in two. Then neither of us will have him.” But the first woman, the real mother, loved her son and said to the king, “Please, sir, don’t kill the baby! Give him to her.”

²⁷ Then King Solomon said, “Stop, don’t kill the baby. Give him to this woman. She is the real mother.”

²⁸ The people of Israel respected the king when they heard about this decision. They saw he had the wisdom of God^[a] to make the right decisions.

Seven Men Chosen for a Special Work

6 More and more people were becoming followers of Jesus. But during this same time, the Greek-speaking followers began to complain against the other Jewish followers. They said that their widows were not getting their share of what the followers received every day. ² The twelve apostles called the whole group of followers together.

The apostles said to them, “It would not be right for us to give up our work of teaching God’s word in order to be in charge of getting food to people. ³ So, brothers and sisters, choose seven of your men who have a good reputation. They must be full of wisdom and the Spirit. We will give them this work to do. ⁴ Then we can use all our time 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] Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus (a man from Antioch who had become a Jew). ⁶ Then they put these men before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.^[b]

⁷ The word of God was reaching more and more people. The group of followers in Jerusalem became larger and larger. Even a big group of Jewish priests believed and obeyed.