Solomon Asks for Wisdom
1 Kings 3Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into David’s city until he had finished building his own house, the house of YHWH, and the wall around Jerusalem. However, the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was not yet a house built for the name of YHWH. Solomon loved YHWH, walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. In Gibeon, YHWH appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”
Solomon said, “You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today. Now, YHWH my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in. Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude. Give 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 great people of yours?”
This request pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice. Therefore, I have done according to your word. See, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you. I have also given you what you did not ask for, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days. If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
Then Solomon awoke, and realized it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of YHWH’s covenant, and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
Two Prostitutes and Two Babies
Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One woman said, “Please my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house. I delivered a child with her in the house. Three days after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were alone, and there was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house. During the night this woman’s child died, because she lay on it. She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She put him by her breast and laid her dead child by my breast. When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, he was dead! But when I looked at him in the morning, I realized that it not my son whom I bore.”
The other woman said, “No! My son is the living one, and your son is dead!”
The first one said, “No! Your son is dead, my son is alive!” So they argued like this before the king.
Then the king said, “One says, ‘My son is the one who lives, and your son is the dead one.’ The other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”
The king said, “Y’all get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.
The king said, “Y’all are to divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other.”
Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for her womb was kindled with compassion for her son, and she said, “Please, my lord, y’all must give the living child to her. Don’t kill-kill him!”
But the other woman said, “He will not be mine nor yours. Cut him in half, y’all!”
Then the king answered, “Y’all are to give the living child to the first woman. Y’all must not kill-kill him. She is his mother.”
All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and they were in awe of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.