1 Kgs 3:16-28 · Read 6 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Solomon asked God in the dream at Gibeon: “Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?” (1 Kgs 3:9). God said: “Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart” (1 Kgs 3:12). This is in Lesson 1.
This lesson reads the case that is recorded right after it.
16Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.
17The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house.
18The 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.
19This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it.
20She 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.
21When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead; but when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore.”
22The 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.” They argued like this before the king.
23Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead one;’ and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”
24The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.
25The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.”
26Then 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.”
27Then the king answered, “Give the first woman the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother.”
28All 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.
Two women. “Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him” (v. 16). One said that the two of them lived in one house and had each had a child three days apart; “There was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house” (v. 18).
In the night. “This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it” (v. 19). She said the other woman had exchanged the two children at midnight; in the morning, “when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore” (v. 21).
Each with her own story. “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.’ They argued like this before the king” (v. 22). The king repeated what each had said (v. 23).
A sword. “The king said, ‘Get me a sword.’ So they brought a sword before the king” (v. 24). “The king said, ‘Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other’” (v. 25).
Her heart yearned. “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’” (v. 26).
The king’s judgment. “Then the king answered, ‘Give the first woman the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother’” (v. 27).
The wisdom of God. “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” (v. 28). In Lesson 1 he asked for “an understanding heart to judge your people” (1 Kgs 3:9); in this lesson, the ones he judged were two women with no one to bear witness for them.
Later. The passage goes on to describe his kingdom: “Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry” (1 Kgs 4:20). In the next lesson, he builds a house for the LORD’s name.
The law of Moses said: “You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment” (Deut 16:18). “You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe” (Deut 16:19).
Readers can see this: those who stood before the king that day were two women with no witness; and what the passage records is that “All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged” (v. 28).
Perhaps you, too, are caught between two sides right now: two children each telling it their own way, two colleagues each with their own account, two relatives at home neither of whom will give way. Perhaps there is no witness either, and the decision is yours.
This lesson does not say that if you can only think of a good enough plan, every case can be settled clearly; nor does it say that the side that gives way is always the one in the right. What it shows you is this: Solomon asked God for “an understanding heart to judge your people” (1 Kgs 3:9); and in this lesson, the people “saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice” (v. 28). The New Testament also says: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (Jas 3:17).
This week: Think of one matter where it falls to you to decide between two sides. This week, don’t hurry to a conclusion; hear both sides out fully, and then ask God for understanding about it.
Scripture: World English Bible.