16. The Babies and the Wise Judge

(1 Kings 3)

One night a King was sleeping, and in his sleep he dreamed that God came to him and said, “Ask what I shall give thee.” He said, “Give me a wise heart to judge the people justly in all things.” God said to him: “Because you have not asked for riches, or long life, or the death of your enemies, but have asked for a heart of wisdom, I will give you a wise heart, and riches, and long life if you will obey me.”

The young King awoke; and it was a dream. But he became one of the richest and wisest of the kings of the earth to rule and to judge his people. One day two mothers came to him, each bringing a baby boy, but one was dead and one was alive. One mother said: “O king, judge my case! We two mothers live in one house. One night this woman’s baby boy died, and she came into my room and stole my little baby boy away, and put her dead baby boy in its place while I was sleeping. In the morning, there beside me in my bed was her dead baby.” The other woman said, “No, no, the living is my son, and the dead is your son.” The King said to his servants, “Go quickly, and bring me a sword!” They brought a sword. The King said, “Divide the living baby in two, and give half to one and half to the other.” The mother whose the living child was cried out to the King, “O my lord, give her the living child; do not slay it!” But the other said, “Yes, divide it.” Then the King knew which was the real mother and said, “Give her the living child; she is his mother.” All the people heard of this, and they said, “King Solomon is the wisest man that ever lived to rule wisely and to judge justly.”