Old Testament

New Testament

1 Kings 3:13-28 Modern English Version (MEV)

13. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no kings will compare to you all of your days.

14. If you will walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and My commandments as your father David did, then I will lengthen your days.”

15. Solomon awoke and found it was a dream.Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings and made a feast for all of his servants.

16. At that time, two women who were prostitutes came and stood before the king.

17. The first woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I bore a child with her in the house.

18. Three days after I gave birth, she also had a child, and we were together. There was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house.

19. “Then this woman’s child died during the night because she rolled over on it.

20. She got up at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept and laid him at her bosom and laid her dead child at my bos­om.

21. When I rose in the morning to feed my child, it was dead. But when I looked closely in the morning light, I recognized that it was not my son whom I bore.”

22. The other woman said, “No, the living is my son, and the dead is your son.”And she said, “No, the dead is your son, and the living is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

23. Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead,’ and the other says, ‘No, but your son is dead, and my son is the living.’ ”

24. So the king said, “Bring me a sword.” And 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. Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son, and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and do not kill it.”But the other said, “Let it be neither mine nor yours and divide it.”

27. Then the king answered and said, “Give her the living child, and do not slay it. She is its mother.”

28. All Israel heard of the king’s judgment, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute sound judgment.

Read complete chapter 1 Kings 3