1 Solomon became Pharaoh king of Egypt's son-in-law. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David, until he had completed the building of his own house, the house of the LORD and the wall all around Jerusalem.
2 Only the people kept sacrificing at the high places, for up to those days no house had been built for the name of the LORD.
3 Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifice there, since that was the principal high place; a thousand burnt offerings Solomon offered on that altar.
5 In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask: what am I to give you?"
6 Solomon answered, "You showed your servant my father David great steadfast love, as he walked before you in truth and righteousness and with an upright heart toward you. You have kept this great steadfast love for him, giving him a son who sits on his throne, as is the case today.
7 Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in my father David's stead, though I am a mere boy who does not know how to go out or come in.
8 And your servant stands among your people whom you chose, a people so great that they cannot be counted or numbered for multitude.
9 So give your servant a listening heart to judge your people, able to tell good from evil. For who can judge this weighty people of yours?"
10 The request was good in the eyes of the Lord, that Solomon had asked for this.
11 God told him, "Since you asked for this, and did not ask for many days for yourself, or ask for wealth for yourself, or ask for the life of your enemies, but asked for yourself discernment to discern what is right,
12 I am now doing as you have said. Look, I am giving you a heart wise and understanding, such that none like you has been before you and none like you will rise after you.
13 What you did not ask I am giving you too: wealth as well as honor, so that among kings there will be no one like you as long as you live.
14 And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments as your father David walked, I will prolong your days."
15 Solomon woke up, and it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, offered up burnt offerings, made peace offerings, and gave a banquet for all his servants.
16 Some time later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
17 One woman said, "Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I share one house, and I gave birth while she was with me in the house.
18 Three days after my delivery this woman gave birth too. We were by ourselves; no outsider was with us in the house, just the two of us.
19 During the night this woman's son died, because she lay on top of him.
20 She got up at midnight and took my son from my side while your maidservant slept. She put him at her breast and put her dead son at my breast.
21 In the morning I got up to nurse my son, and he was dead. But when I examined him in the morning light, he was not the son I had borne."
22 The other woman said, "Not so! My son is the living one, and yours is the dead one." The first kept saying, "Not so! Yours is the dead one, and mine is the living one." So they went on speaking before the king.
23 The king said, "One says, 'This living one is my son, and the dead one is yours,' and the other says, 'Not so! The dead one is your son, and the living one is mine.'"
24 "Get me a sword," said the king. And a sword was brought before the king.
25 Then the king said, "Cut the living child in two; give half to one woman and half to the other."
26 But the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son: "Pardon me, my lord! Give her the living child; do not kill him, whatever you do!" The other kept saying, "He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him!"
27 The king then answered, "Give the first woman the living child, and do not kill him; she is his mother."
28 All Israel heard of the judgment the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, for they saw that God's wisdom was within him for doing justice.