Category: Kings
Scriptures:
1 Kings 3:16-3:28
-the-judgement-of-solomon-(1605-13).webp)
1 Kings 3:16-3:28
16 Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.
17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house.
18 The third day after I delivered, this woman delivered also. We were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house.
19 This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it.
20 She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but 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 one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” The first one said, “No; but the dead one is your son, and the living one 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 the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”
24 The king said, “Get me a sword.” So 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 the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill him!” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him.”
27 Then the king answered, “Give her the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother.”
28 All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king; for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.
Commentary
The Judgment of Solomon is the biblical example of King Solomon’s wisdom. When Solomon ascended to the throne, he sought after God, and God gave him opportunity to ask for whatever he wanted. Solomon humbly acknowledged his inability to rule well and unselfishly asked God for wisdom. God gave him wisdom and wealth besides (1 Kings 3:4–15). In fact, “King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth” (1 Kings 10:23).
Solomon’s strategy in this case relied on the reality of the maternal instinct. He knew the true mother would prefer losing her son to another woman over seeing him killed. Solomon’s shrewdness in getting to the truth and a just verdict caused everyone to take note: “When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice” (1 Kings 3:28).