Then two prostitutes came to the king and said, “O Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. Three days after I had given birth, she also gave birth. We were together. But this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him when she was sleeping. And she got up in the night and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept and laid it in her arms, and laid her dead son in my arms. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, he was dead. The other woman said, ”No, my son is alive, but your son is dead.” And the other said, “No, your son is dead, but my son is alive.” Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” And when it was brought, he said, “Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other.” Then the woman whose son was alive said, because her heart was inflamed with love for her son,
“O, my lord, give her the living child, and do not kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Kill him and divide him.” Then the king said, “Give her the living child. She is his mother.” And all Israel saw the wisdom of God in Solomon.