1 Kings 3
1 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David, until he had finished building his palace, the house of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem.
2 But the people were sacrificing at the high places, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD.
3 Solomon loved the LORD and followed the decrees of David, his father. But he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
5 At Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream during the night. God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you faithfully, with justice and integrity of heart toward you. You have kept this great and faithful love for him and given him a son to sit on his throne, as is the case today.
7 “Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in David my father’s place. But I am a young boy; I do not know how to go out or come in.
8 “Your servant is among your people, whom you have chosen, a people so numerous they cannot be counted or measured.
9 “Give your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil. For who could judge this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.
11 God said to him, “Because you asked for this and did not ask for a long life for yourself, or wealth for yourself, or the lives of your enemies, but asked for discernment to hear what is just,
12 “I will do as you have said. I give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, and no one like you will arise after you.
13 “I also give you what you did not ask for: wealth and honor, so that no king will be your equal throughout all your days.
14 “And if you walk in my ways, keeping my decrees and commandments as David your father did, I will lengthen your days.”
15 Solomon awoke, and it was a dream. He went to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant. He offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and gave a feast for all his servants.
16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
17 One of the women said, “Please, my lord! This woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was there with me.
18 “On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; no stranger was with us in the house. Only the two of us were there.
19 “This woman’s son died during the night because she lay on him.
20 “She got up in the middle of the night, took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and laid him in her arms. Then she laid her dead son in my arms.
21 “In the morning, I got up to nurse my son, and he was dead. But when I looked closely at him in the morning, I saw that he was not my son, the one I had given birth to.”
22 The other woman said, “No! My son is the living one, and your son is the dead one.” But the first woman said, “No! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.” So they argued before the king.
23 The king said, “This one says, ‘This is my son, the living one, and your son is the dead one’; and that one says, ‘No! 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 The king said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.”
26 The woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her compassion for her son had been stirred: “Please, my lord! Give her the living child, and do not kill him at all.” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two.”
27 The king answered, “Give the living child to the first woman, and do not kill him at all. She is his mother.”
28 All Israel heard the judgment the king had given, and they stood in awe of the king, because they saw that God’s wisdom was in him to do justice.
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