King James Version › 1 Kings › 3

1 Kings

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1 And Solomon made affin­i­ty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daugh­ter, and brought her into the city of David, un­til he had made an end of build­ing his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. 2 Only the peo­ple sac­ri­ficed in high places, be­cause there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, un­til those days. 3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walk­ing in the statutes of David his fa­ther: only he sac­ri­ficed and burnt in­cense in high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to sac­ri­fice there; for that was the great high place: a thou­sand burnt of­fer­ings did Solomon of­fer upon that al­tar. 5 In Gibeon the LORD ap­peared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. 6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy ser­vant David my fa­ther great mer­cy, ac­cord­ing as he walked be­fore thee in truth, and in righ­teous­ness, and in up­right­ness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kind­ness, that thou hast giv­en him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7 And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy ser­vant king in­stead of David my fa­ther: and I am but a lit­tle child: I know not how to go out or come in. 8 And thy ser­vant is in the midst of thy peo­ple which thou hast cho­sen, a great peo­ple, that can­not be num­bered nor count­ed for mul­ti­tude. 9 Give there­fore thy ser­vant an un­der­stand­ing heart to judge thy peo­ple, that I may dis­cern be­tween good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a peo­ple? 10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 And God said unto him, Be­cause thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thy­self long life; nei­ther hast asked rich­es for thy­self, nor hast asked the life of thine en­e­mies; but hast asked for thy­self un­der­stand­ing to dis­cern judg­ment; 12 Be­hold, I have done ac­cord­ing to thy words: lo, I have giv­en thee a wise and an un­der­stand­ing heart; so that there was none like thee be­fore thee, nei­ther af­ter thee shall any arise like unto thee. 13 And I have also giv­en thee that which thou hast not asked, both rich­es, and hon­our: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. 14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my com­mand­ments, as thy fa­ther David did walk, then I will length­en thy days. 15 And Solomon awoke; and, be­hold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood be­fore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and of­fered up burnt of­fer­ings, and of­fered peace of­fer­ings, and made a feast to all his ser­vants. 16 Then came there two wom­en, that were har­lots, unto the king, and stood be­fore him. 17 And the one wom­an said, O my lord, I and this wom­an dwell in one house; and I was de­liv­ered of a child with her in the house. 18 And it came to pass the third day af­ter that I was de­liv­ered, that this wom­an was de­liv­ered al­so: and we were to­geth­er; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. 19 And this woman's child died in the night; be­cause she over­laid it. 20 And she arose at mid­night, and took my son from be­side me, while thine hand­maid slept, and laid it in her bo­som, and laid her dead child in my bo­som. 21 And when I rose in the morn­ing to give my child suck, be­hold, it was dead: but when I had con­sid­ered it in the morn­ing, be­hold, it was not my son, which I did bear. 22 And the oth­er wom­an said, Nay; but the liv­ing is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the liv­ing is my son. Thus they spake be­fore the king. 23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the oth­er saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the liv­ing. 24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword be­fore the king. 25 And the king said, Di­vide the liv­ing child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the oth­er. 26 Then spake the wom­an whose the liv­ing child was unto the king, for her bow­els yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the liv­ing child, and in no wise slay it. But the oth­er said, Let it be nei­ther mine nor thine, but di­vide it. 27 Then the king an­swered and said, Give her the liv­ing child, and in no wise slay it: she is the moth­er there­of. 28 And 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 judg­ment.