¹Solomon became a son-in-law with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he took the daughter of Pharaoh and brought her to the city of David, until he finished building his house and the house of Yahweh and the wall of Jerusalem all around.

²Only the people were sacrificing at the high places, for no house had been built for the name of Yahweh until those days.

³Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father; only at the high places he sacrificed and made sacrifices smoke.

⁴The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon would offer up a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

⁵At Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream in the night, and God said, 'Ask what I should give you.'

⁶Solomon said, 'You have shown great loyal love to your slave David my father, as he walked before your face in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you; and you have kept for him this great loyal love, and you have given him a son sitting on his throne, as on this day.'

⁷And now, Yahweh my God, you yourself have made your slave king in place of David my father; and I am a young lad; I do not know how to go out or come in.

⁸And your slave is in the midst of your people whom you chose, a great people who cannot be numbered and cannot be counted because of the multitude.

⁹So give your slave a heart that hears, to judge your people, to discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this weighty people of yours?

¹⁰The word was good in the eyes of the Lord, that Solomon had asked for this word.

¹¹God said to him, 'Because you have asked for this word, and have not asked for yourself many days, and have not asked for yourself wealth, and have not asked for the being of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding, so as to hear justice —

¹²Look, I have done according to your words; look, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, such that no one like you has been before you, and after you no one will arise like you.

¹³And also what you did not ask for I have given you — both wealth and weightiness — such that there has been no man like you among the kings, all your days.

¹⁴And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commands, as David your father walked, then I will lengthen your days.

¹⁵Solomon woke up, and look, it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem and stood before the face of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and made a feast for all his slaves.

¹⁶Then two women, prostitutes, came to the king and stood before his face.

¹⁷The one woman said: Pardon me, my lord, I and this woman were dwelling in one house, and I gave birth with her in the house.

¹⁸It happened on the third day after my giving birth that this woman also gave birth. We were together; no stranger was with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house.

¹⁹Then the son of this woman died in the night, because she lay on him.

²⁰She rose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me, while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him in her bosom; and her dead son she laid in my bosom.

²¹I rose in the morning to nurse my son, and look, he was dead. When I observed him closely in the morning, look, he was not my son, the one I had borne.

²²The other woman said: No, my son is the living one and your son is the dead one. And this one said: No, your son is the dead one and my son is the living one. So they spoke before the face of the king.

²³The king said: This one says: This is my son, the living one, and your son is the dead one; and this one says: No, your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.

²⁴The king said: Fetch me a sword. So they brought the sword before the face of the king.

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

²⁶The woman whose son was the living one said to the king, for her compassion grew warm over her son, and she said: Pardon me, my lord, give her the living newborn, and by no means put him to death! And this one said: It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it!

²⁷The king answered and said: Give her the living newborn, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.

²⁸All Israel heard the justice by which the king had judged, and they were afraid before the face of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him, to do justice.