 1 Solomon made an alliance by marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 Only the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house built to the name of the Lord until those days. 3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father. Only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. 4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there. For that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, Ask what I shall give you. 6 Solomon said, You have shown to your servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before you in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with you. And you have kept this great kindness for him, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today. 7 Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. And I am a little child; I do not know to go out or come in. 8 Your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a numerous people who cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. 9 Give to your servant an understanding heart, to judge your people, to discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this, your great people? 10 The word was good in the eyes of the Lord, that Solomon had asked this. 11 God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but you have asked for understanding to judge justly, 12 Behold, I have done according to your words. I have given you a wise and an understanding heart so that there was no one like you before and will be no one like you after. 13 I also have given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you all your days. 14 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. 15 Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. 16 Then there came two women, harlots, to the king, and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, O my lord, this woman and I live in one house. And I was bore a child with her in the house. 18 On the third day after I gave birth, this woman bore a child also. And we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. 19 This woman's child died in the night, because she laid on it. 20 She arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant was sleeping, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21 When I arose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead. And when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore. 22 The other woman said, No, but the living is my son, and the dead is your son. And this one said, No, but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. So they spoke before the king. 23 The king said, The one says, This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead. And the other says, No, but your son is the dead, and my son is the living. 24 The king said, Bring me a sword. They brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other. 26 The woman whose son was the living child said to the king, for her womb yearned over her son. And she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor yours. Divide it. 27 The king said, Give her the living child, and in no way kill it. She is the mother of it. 28 All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had judged and they feared the king for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.
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