1 Kings 3:1-28
3 And when the kingdom was settled in Solomon’s hands, Solomon made a matrimonial alliance with the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and took the Pharaoh’s daughter as his bride and brought her to David’s City till he should finish building his house and Jehovah’s house and the wall around Jerusalem.
2 Only the people sacrificed on the heights, because up to that date no house had been built for the name of Jehovah.
3 And Solomon loved Jehovah, going by his father David’s usages; only he sacrificed and made burnings on the heights.
4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the greatest of the heights: a thousand burnt-offerings Solomon offered on that altar.
5 In Gibeon Jehovah appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said “Ask for what you will have me give you.”
6 * And Solomon said “You showed great tokens of friendliness to my father, your servant David, while he walked before you loyally and honestly and truly; and you kept in reserve for him this great piece of friendliness, and have given him a son sitting on his throne, as at this day.
7 Now, Jehovah my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, when I am a child and do not know how to go out and come in;
8 and your servant is surrounded by your chosen people, a great people, too great for the count to be taken or the number known:
9 give your servant a judicious mind to judge your people, to distinguish good from evil—for who is able to judge this vast people?”
10 And the words pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing:
11 and God said to him “Since you have asked this thing, and have not asked to have many days nor to have wealth nor to have the lives of your enemies, but have asked to have discernment to hear causes,
12 I do as you said: I give you a mind so wise and discerning that there has never been one like you before you, and after you none like you shall arise.
13 * And I also give you what you did not ask for, both wealth and glory, such that not a man among the kings has been like you.
14 And if you walk in my ways, keeping my usages and commandments, as your father David did, I will make your days long.”
15 And Solomon awoke and found it a dream; and he went into Jerusalem and stood before the ark of Jehovah’s covenant, and offered burnt-offerings and made welfare-sacrifices, and gave a banquet to his officers.
16 Then two women living in prostitution came to the king and stood before him,
17 and one woman said “O, sir, I and this woman live in one house; and I had a baby, in the house with her,
18 and two days after I had mine this woman had one too; and we were together, there was no stranger in the house with us, but we two in the house.
19 And this woman’s son died in the night, because she overlaid it;
20 and she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me, while your servant was sound asleep, and took him to bed in her arms, and laid her dead son in mine.
21 * And I got up in the morning to give my son the breast, and found him dead; but I looked him over carefully in the morning and found it was not my son that I had borne.”
22 And the other woman said “No, the life one is my son and the dead one is yours”; and they talked away before the king.
23 And the king said “This one says ‘this is my son, the live one, and the dead one is yours’; and that one says ‘no, the dead one is your son and the live one is mine’—”
24 And the king said “Get me a sword”; and they brought the sword before the king;
25 and the king said “Slice the live child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
26 And the woman whose son the live child was said to the king (for she was in a fever of alarm for her son) “O, sir, give her the babe, don’t kill it”; but the other was saying “I don’t have it and you don’t either! Slice!”
27 And the king answered “Give her the babe, don’t kill it; she is its mother.”
28 And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had passed, and stood in fear of the king, because they saw that he had in him divine wisdom to do justice.
Footnotes
^ 3:6 Or this greatest piece
^ 3:13 Var. has been like you all your life
^ 3:21 Probably the words in the morning do not belong in both places
