1 Kings 3

Sulayman made an alliance with Firaun king of Egypt, and married Firaun's daughter, and brought her into the city of Dawud, until he had finished building his own house, and the house of Allah, and the wall of Jerusalem all around. ²Meanwhile the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Allah until those days. ³Sulayman loved Allah, walking in the statutes of Dawud his father: only he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. ⁴The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: Sulayman offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵In Gibeon Allah appeared to Sulayman in a dream by night; and God said, Ask what I shall give you. ⁶Sulayman said, You have shown to your servant Dawud my father great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you; and you have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. ⁷Now, Allah my God, you have made your servant king in the place of Dawud my father: and I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. ⁸Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. ⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people? ¹⁰It pleased the Lord that Sulayman had asked this thing. ¹¹God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked for riches, nor have asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice; ¹²behold, I have done according to your word. I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there has been no one like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like you. ¹³I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honour, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days. ¹⁴If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father Dawud walked, then I will lengthen your days. ¹⁵Sulayman awoke; and, behold, it was a dream: and he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of Allah, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace-offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. ¹⁶Then there came two women who were prostitutes, to the king, and stood before him. ¹⁷The one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸It happened the third day after I gave birth, that this woman gave birth also; and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. ¹⁹This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on it. ²⁰She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. ²¹When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore. ²²The other woman said, No; but the living one is my son, and the dead is your son. And the first one said, No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. This is how they spoke before the king. ²³Then the king said, The one says, This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead one: and the other says, No; but your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one. ²⁴The king said, Get me a sword. They brought a sword before the king. ²⁵The king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. ²⁶Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it. But the other said, It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it. ²⁷Then the king answered, Give the first woman the living child, and in no way kill it: she is its mother. ²⁸All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.