3:1  Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem.

3:2  The people still sacrificed on the high places, because they had built no house for the name of the LORD until those days.

3:3  Now Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

3:4  The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that he considered the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

3:5  In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, "Ask what you wish me to give you."

3:6  Then Solomon said, "You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it has happened on this day.

3:7  "Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I consider myself but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.

3:8  "Your servant stands in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who have become too many to number or count.

3:9  "So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who has the capability to judge this great people of Yours?"

3:10  It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

3:11  God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice,

3:12  behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has never lived anyone like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

3:13  "I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not live any among the kings like you all your days.

3:14  "If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days."

3:15  Then Solomon awoke, and behold, it seemed a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

3:16  Then two women who had lived in harlotry came to the king and stood before him.

3:17  The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she lived in the house.

3:18  "It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we lived together. There lived no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

3:19  "This woman's son died in the night, because she lay on it.

3:20  "So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.

3:21  "When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he had died; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he did not look like my son, whom I had borne."

3:22  Then the other woman said, "No! For the living one I know as my son, and the dead one I know as your son." But the first woman said, "No! For the dead one I know as your son, and the living one I know as my son." Thus they spoke before the king.

3:23  Then the king said, "The one says, 'This I know my son who lives, and your son has died'; and the other says, 'No! For your son has died, and my son lives.'"

3:24  The king said, "Get me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king.

3:25  The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."

3:26  Then the woman whose child had lived spoke to the king, for she felt deeply stirred over her son and said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him." But the other said, "He shall belong neither to me nor to you; divide him!"

3:27  Then the king said, "Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She indeed has proved herself his mother."

3:28  When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God resided in him to administer justice.