1 Kings chapter 3 verses 16 through 28

Solomon's wisdom

Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him

The one woman said,

Oh my lord, this woman and I live in the same house

And I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth, and we were alone.

And there was no one else with us in the house. Only we too were in the house. And this woman's son

died in the night because she lay on him. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while my servant slept and laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast. And when I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the

child that I had born. But the other woman said, no, the living child is mine and the dead child is

yours. The first said, no, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine. Thus they spoke before the

king. Then the king said,

The one says, This is my son that is alive and your son is dead, and the other says,

No, but your son is dead and my son is the living one. And the king said, bring me a sword.

So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, divide the living child in two, and give

half to the one and half to the other.

Then the woman whose son was alive, said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son,

Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.

But the other said, He shall be neither mine nor yours, divide him.

And the king answered and said,

Give the living child to the first woman and by no means put him to death.

She is his mother.

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