Solomon’s Wisdom Tested: The Two Prostitutes
16 Then two prostitutes came to the king, and they stood before him.
17
The one woman said, "Please my lord, I and this woman are living in one house, and I gave birth, with her in the house.
18
It happened on the third day [after] my giving birth, this woman also gave birth, and we [were] together. There was not anyone with us in the house, only the two of us [were] in the house.
19
Then the son of this woman died [in the] night because she laid on him.
20
So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap.
21
When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! When I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne."
22
Then the other woman said, "No, for my son [is] the living one, and your son [is] the dead one." The other kept on saying, "No, for your son [is] the dead one, and my son [is] the living one," and so they argued in front of the king.
23
Then the king said, "This one [is] saying, 'This [is] my son, the living one, but your son [is] the dead one,' and the other one keeps saying, 'But no! Your son [is] the dead one, and my son [is] living!'"
24
So the king said, "Bring me a sword," and they brought the sword before the king.
25
Then the king said, "Divide the living child into two, and give half to the one and half to the other."
26
Then the woman whose son [was] the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, "Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!" The other one [was] saying, "As for me, so for you! Divide [him]!"
27
Then the king answered and said, "Give the living child to her, and do not kill him; she [is] his mother."
28
When all of Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, they {stood in awe} of the king, because they realized that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.