Solomon secures a marriage alliance with Pharaoh's daughter and worships at Gibeon, the great high place. There, in a dream, the LORD offers Solomon anything he desires. Solomon asks not for long life, wealth, or military victory but for a 'listening heart' to govern God's people and to distinguish good from evil. Pleased by the request, God grants Solomon unmatched wisdom and adds what he did not ask for: riches and honor. Solomon awakens, returns to Jerusalem, and stands before the ark. Then two prostitutes bring him an impossible case — two living women, one dead infant, one living infant, and no witnesses. Solomon's command to cut the child in half exposes the true mother through her desperate love, and all Israel recognizes that divine wisdom resides in their king.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
This chapter is the theological foundation for Solomon's entire reign, and it pivots on a single Hebrew phrase that most translations obscure. Solomon does not ask for 'an understanding heart' (KJV) or even 'wisdom' in the abstract. He asks for lev shomea — a listening heart, a heart that hears. The request is fundamentally about receptivity, not intelligence. Solomon recognizes that a king who cannot hear — hear God, hear the people, hear the difference between justice and injustice — cannot govern. The verb shama ('to hear') is the same verb that opens the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), Israel's foundational confession. Solomon is asking to be, as king, what all Israel was supposed to be: a people who hear and obey. God's response confirms that the request was right precisely because it was selfless — Solomon did not ask for nephesh oyevav ('the life of your enemies') or for osher ('riches') or for yamim rabbim ('long life'). The narrator lists what Solomon did not ask for to show that the shape of the request revealed the shape of the man. The judgment scene that follows is not merely a clever anecdote. It is the immediate proof that God answered the prayer. Solomon's wisdom operates not through legal precedent or investigation but through an understanding of human nature so penetrating that it can identify a mother by her willingness to lose rather than see her child destroyed. The verb nikhmeru rachameyha ('her compassion was aroused') uses the same root as rechem ('womb') — the true mother's identity is confirmed by a visceral, bodily compassion that the impostor cannot simulate.
Translation Friction
The verb shama in Solomon's request (lev shomea, v9) means both 'to hear' and 'to obey,' and the standard rendering 'understanding heart' collapses both dimensions into a cognitive category. We chose 'listening heart' to preserve the auditory metaphor — Solomon asks to be a king whose heart has ears — while acknowledging that 'listening' in English does not fully carry the obedience dimension that shama does in Hebrew. In verse 1, Solomon's marriage alliance with Pharaoh is stated without editorial comment in the Hebrew, though it sits in tension with Deuteronomy 17:16-17's warnings about kings multiplying foreign wives and turning toward Egypt. The narrator neither condemns nor approves; we followed that restraint. The phrase lo noda ('it was not known,' v21) in the prostitute's testimony uses yada in its forensic sense — no third party witnessed the switch — but the same root carries the chapter's epistemological theme: how things are known, how truth is discerned, and who possesses the wisdom to distinguish them.
Connections
Solomon's dream at Gibeon connects to the broader biblical pattern of divine encounters at night — Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28), Abraham's covenant vision (Genesis 15), and later God's appearance to Solomon again at the temple dedication (1 Kings 9:2). The phrase 'walking in faithfulness' (halakh be'emet, v6) links David's character description here to the Torah's walking language (Deuteronomy 10:12) and to the later prophetic ideal of walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Solomon's judgment anticipates the prophetic tradition of advocating for the powerless — two prostitutes with no legal standing receive justice from the king himself. The closing verse's phrase mishpat Elohim ('the justice of God,' v28) frames Solomon's wisdom not as personal cleverness but as a channel for divine justice operating through a human ruler.
Solomon entered into a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David until he could finish building his own palace, the house of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The hitpael form vayitchatten implies mutuality in the alliance but also carries the nuance of Solomon making himself a marriage relative to Pharaoh. This is the only recorded instance of an Israelite king marrying a daughter of Egypt's pharaoh, and it signals Solomon's extraordinary diplomatic standing.
The phrase ad kalloto livnot ('until he finished building') uses the piel infinitive construct of kalah ('to complete'), indicating that the construction was ongoing. Pharaoh's daughter was housed in the city of David as a temporary arrangement, which the narrator mentions without commentary. The three unfinished projects frame the setting: Solomon's kingdom is still under construction in every sense.
The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD in those days.
KJV Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The particle raq ('only, except, however') at the verse's opening is a limiting qualifier that introduces an exception to the positive picture. The narrator acknowledges that while Solomon's reign was otherwise commendable, the decentralized sacrificial practice at the high places remained a persistent feature.
The phrase leshem YHWH ('for the name of the LORD') uses shem ('name') as a theological circumlocution for God's presence. The temple was not merely a building for worship but the place where God's name — and therefore God's accessible presence — would dwell. Without it, worship was geographically scattered.
Solomon loved the LORD, walking according to the instructions of his father David — except that he was sacrificing and burning incense at the high places.
KJV And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The statement vaye'ehav Shelomoh et YHWH ('Solomon loved the LORD') uses the covenantal verb ahav ('to love') that characterizes treaty loyalty in Deuteronomic theology. This is not sentimentality but committed allegiance. The qualifying phrase lalekhet bechuqqot ('walking in the statutes of') uses the metaphor of halakh ('to walk') — the same language applied to faithful covenant life throughout Deuteronomy.
The repeated raq ('except, only') from verse 2 reappears, creating a refrain of qualification. The narrator praises Solomon's devotion but cannot omit the high-place problem. The participles mezabbeach umaqtir ('sacrificing and burning incense') describe habitual, ongoing activity — not a single lapse but a regular practice.
The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because it was the most important high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Gibeon held special status because the Tabernacle of Moses was located there (2 Chronicles 1:3), making it the habamah hagedolah ('the great high place') — the most significant sacrificial site in Israel before the temple was built. Solomon's journey there was not random but deliberate pilgrimage to the most legitimate worship site available.
The number eleph olot ('a thousand burnt offerings') is staggering in scale. Whether understood as a literal thousand or as a round number signifying extraordinary generosity, the offering communicates Solomon's total devotion. The olah ('burnt offering') was consumed entirely on the altar — nothing returned to the worshiper — making it the purest expression of self-giving worship.
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream during the night. God said, "Ask — what should I give you?"
KJV In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Niphal form nir'ah indicates that God is the subject who allows Himself to be perceived — the appearance is divine initiative, not human achievement. Solomon did not conjure or seek a vision; God chose to reveal Himself in response to Solomon's lavish worship at Gibeon.
The imperative she'al ('ask!') from the root sha'al is direct and unqualified. God does not say 'ask within these parameters' or 'ask for something appropriate.' The openness of the offer is what makes Solomon's response so revealing.
Solomon said, "You showed great faithful love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have continued this great faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne — as is the case today.
KJV 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.
Chesed is the defining term for God's covenantal character — reliable, enduring loyalty to the covenant relationship that goes beyond legal obligation. In verse 6, Solomon appeals to God's chesed toward David as the foundation for his own request. The word resists single-word translation: 'mercy' (KJV) is too passive, 'kindness' too weak, 'love' too general. 'Faithful love' captures both the relational warmth and the covenantal reliability.
Translator Notes
The noun chesed appears twice in this verse — chesed gadol ('great faithful love') describing God's past action toward David, and hachesed hagadol hazzeh ('this great faithful love') describing its continuation in Solomon's accession. We rendered both as 'faithful love' rather than KJV's 'mercy' or 'kindness' because chesed in covenantal contexts denotes reliable, enduring loyalty rather than emotional sympathy.
The triad emet, tsedaqah, yishrat levav ('faithfulness, righteousness, uprightness of heart') describes David's covenantal walk. The term emet ('truth, faithfulness, reliability') is relational — it means David was a trustworthy covenant partner. Tsedaqah ('righteousness') indicates right conduct within the covenant relationship. Yishrat levav ('uprightness of heart') points to inner integrity — David's motives matched his actions.
And now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, but I am only a young man — I do not know how to lead effectively.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Solomon's self-description as na'ar qaton ('a small youth, a young boy') is a conventional expression of humility in commissioning contexts (compare Jeremiah 1:6), though Solomon was likely in his late teens or early twenties. The phrase conveys not literal age but felt inadequacy before the enormity of the task.
The idiom lo eda tset vavo ('I do not know going out and coming in') refers to military and administrative leadership — the ability to lead the nation's affairs, particularly in war (compare Numbers 27:17, Deuteronomy 31:2). Solomon is not saying he cannot walk through a door but that he lacks the experience to govern. We rendered this as 'lead effectively' to capture the functional sense rather than the literal idiom.
Your servant stands among your people whom you have chosen — a people so vast they cannot be numbered or counted.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Solomon positions himself betokh ammekha ('in the midst of your people') — not above them but embedded among them. The word choice echoes the ideal of Israelite kingship in Deuteronomy 17:15, where the king comes from 'among your brothers.' Solomon frames his role as service within the community, not domination over it.
The description of Israel as am rav ('a great people') who cannot be numbered echoes the Abrahamic promise (Genesis 15:5, 22:17). Solomon is saying: the promise has been fulfilled — and that very fulfillment is what makes governing so overwhelming. The more numerous the people, the greater the need for wisdom.
So give your servant a listening heart to govern your people, to discern between good and evil — for who is able to govern this weighty people of yours?"
KJV 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?
Solomon's actual request — not 'wisdom' in the abstract but a heart equipped to hear. The construct phrase combines lev ('heart' — the seat of will, intellect, and moral discernment in Hebrew anthropology) with the participle shomea ('hearing, listening'). In Hebrew thought, the heart is not primarily the seat of emotion (as in English) but the organ of perception, decision, and moral reasoning. A 'listening heart' is therefore a total reorientation of the self toward receptivity — toward God's instruction, toward the people's cries, toward the truth that hides beneath surfaces.
Though Solomon asks for a 'listening heart,' God's response in verses 11-12 names what He gives as chokmah — wisdom. In Hebrew, chokmah is not abstract philosophical knowledge but the skilled ability to navigate reality rightly. A chokmam ('wise person') is someone who knows how things work and acts accordingly. The term applies to artisans (Exodus 31:3), administrators, judges, and anyone who exercises skill in their domain. Solomon's wisdom is governance-wisdom: the ability to see through deception, to weigh competing claims, and to render justice.
Translator Notes
We rendered lev shomea as 'listening heart' rather than KJV's 'understanding heart' to preserve the Hebrew's auditory metaphor. The participle shomea from shama means 'hearing, listening, obeying' — Solomon's request is for receptive capacity, not raw intellect. A listening heart is one that can receive divine guidance and hear human need.
The adjective kaved ('heavy, weighty') applied to the people carries multiple resonances. Israel is 'heavy' in the sense of numerous and difficult to govern, but the root k-v-d also means 'glorious, honored.' Solomon's burden is also his privilege.
The request pleased the Lord — that Solomon had asked for this.
KJV And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase vayyitav haddavar be'einei Adonai ('the matter was good in the eyes of the Lord') uses the standard Hebrew idiom for approval. God's pleasure is not arbitrary but responsive: the request itself revealed Solomon's character. What a person asks for when offered everything discloses what they truly value.
God said to him, "Because you asked for this — and did not ask for long life for yourself, did not ask for wealth for yourself, did not ask for the death of your enemies — but instead asked for discernment to understand justice,
KJV 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;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's response catalogs what Solomon did not request through a triple negation: lo sha'alta yamim rabbim ('you did not ask for many days,' i.e., long life), lo sha'alta osher ('you did not ask for wealth'), lo sha'alta nephesh oyvekha ('you did not ask for the life of your enemies'). The three-fold 'did not ask' throws Solomon's actual request into sharp relief by contrast.
The phrase havin lishmo'a mishpat ('discernment to hear justice') restates Solomon's request from God's perspective. God names it as the ability to hear — lishmo'a, the infinitive of shama — confirming that Solomon's 'listening heart' was correctly understood. The word mishpat ('justice, judgment, legal decision') is the specific domain in which Solomon's listening heart will operate.
I have now done what you asked. I have given you a wise and discerning heart — so that no one like you has existed before you, and no one like you will arise after you.
KJV 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.
Here God names what He gives: a lev chakham ('wise heart'). Solomon asked for a 'listening heart'; God grants a 'wise and discerning heart.' The listening posture Solomon requested is the precondition for the wisdom God bestows — hearing precedes understanding, receptivity precedes skill.
Translator Notes
The adjective navon ('discerning, understanding') from the root bin adds a dimension beyond chokmah. While chokmah is the ability to act skillfully, binah/tevunah is the ability to perceive distinctions, to analyze, to see through surfaces to underlying realities. Solomon receives both: the skill to act wisely and the perception to see clearly.
The temporal brackets lefanekha ('before you') and acharekha ('after you') make this a statement about all of human history. Solomon's wisdom is presented as a one-time divine endowment without parallel.
And what you did not ask for I have also given you — both wealth and honor — so that no king will be your equal during your entire lifetime.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The formula vegam asher lo sha'alta ('and also what you did not ask for') reveals the divine principle at work: selfless requests receive more than what was asked. Because Solomon did not pursue wealth and honor, God adds them as unasked gifts. The pattern echoes Jesus's later teaching: 'Seek first the kingdom of God... and all these things will be added to you' (Matthew 6:33).
The noun kavod ('honor, glory, weight') from the root k-v-d connects to verse 9, where Solomon described Israel as am kaved ('a weighty people'). The weight that burdened Solomon becomes the glory that adorns him.
And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commands just as your father David walked, then I will give you a long life."
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The conditional im telekh bidrakhai ('if you walk in my ways') introduces the one gift that comes with a condition: length of days. Wisdom, wealth, and honor have already been granted unconditionally. But long life depends on ongoing obedience. The condition uses halakh ('to walk') — the same covenantal walking language from verse 3 and verse 6. The standard is David's walk: imperfect but genuinely devoted.
The verb veha'arakhti ('and I will lengthen') from the root arekh ('to be long') echoes the Deuteronomic promise of long life in the land for obedience (Deuteronomy 5:33, 6:2). Tragically, Solomon's later disobedience (1 Kings 11) means this conditional promise was not fully realized.
Solomon woke up — and realized it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, offered burnt offerings, presented fellowship offerings, and held a feast for all his servants.
KJV 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 for all his servants.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase vayyiqats Shelomoh vehinneh chalom ('Solomon woke up and behold — a dream') captures the disorienting moment between sleep and wakefulness. The particle hinneh ('behold, look') conveys surprise or realization: Solomon recognizes that the encounter was a dream, but the recognition does not diminish its authority. Divine dreams in the Hebrew Bible carry real weight.
Solomon's immediate response is to travel from Gibeon to Jerusalem and stand before the ark — the primary symbol of God's covenant presence. His sacrificial sequence moves from olot ('burnt offerings,' total consecration) to shelamim ('fellowship offerings,' shared meals of communion). The feast for his servants extends the sacred joy outward into the community. Solomon has received wisdom; his first act is worship and generosity.
Then two women who were prostitutes came before the king and stood in his presence.
KJV Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The noun zonah ('prostitute') is stated factually as a social identifier. The narrator does not moralize about the women's profession; their status simply establishes that they have no male witnesses or legal advocates. In a patriarchal legal system, these women had almost no standing, which makes the king's willingness to hear their case all the more significant.
The verb va'tta'amodnah ('and they stood') from amad ('to stand') in the feminine plural indicates a formal legal posture — standing before the judge. Despite their social position, they assume the posture of litigants with a right to be heard.
One of the women said, "Please, my lord — this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth while she was in the house with me.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The interjection bi adoni ('please, my lord') is a respectful appeal to the king as judge. The woman establishes the crucial facts: shared dwelling (bayit echad, 'one house') and proximity at the time of birth. The phrase va'eled immah babbayit ('I gave birth with her in the house') places both women together with no third-party witnesses — the condition that makes this case impossible to resolve by normal legal means.
On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were alone together — no outsider was with us in the house; it was just the two of us.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The woman emphasizes the isolation twice: ein zar ittanu babbayit ('no stranger with us in the house') and zulati shetayim anachnu babbayit ('except for us two in the house'). The repetition drives home the evidentiary problem: with no witnesses, the case is one woman's word against the other's. The word zar ('stranger, outsider') means anyone other than the two of them — there is no third party who can corroborate either claim.
This woman's son died during the night because she rolled onto him in her sleep.
KJV And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase asher shakhvah alav ('because she lay on him') describes an accidental smothering — the mother rolled onto the infant during sleep. The verb shakhav ('to lie down') is the ordinary word for sleeping or lying in bed. The narrator presents this through the first woman's testimony, so the account reflects her version of events.
She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was sleeping. She laid him against her own chest and placed her dead son against mine.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The woman describes a deliberate nocturnal switch: the other woman took the living child and replaced it with the dead one. The verb vattiqqach ('and she took') indicates intentional action. The word cheiq ('bosom, chest, lap') appears twice — the intimate space where a nursing mother holds her infant. The switch exploits the darkness and the deep sleep of a postpartum mother.
The self-reference amatekha ('your maidservant') is a deferential term used when addressing the king, placing the speaker in a subordinate position relative to Solomon's authority.
When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, he was dead. But when I looked closely at him in the morning light, I saw that he was not the son I had given birth to."
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb va'etbonen ('and I looked closely, and I examined') from the root bin ('to discern, to understand') is the same root that describes Solomon's God-given discernment in verse 12. The mother's careful examination — her binah — is what detected the switch. The word choice creates a resonance: the mother's perceptive discernment parallels the king's judicial discernment.
The phrase lo hayah beni asher yaladeti ('it was not my son whom I bore') is the mother's definitive claim. She knows her own child — the intimacy of birth and nursing has given her knowledge that darkness could not erase.
The other woman said, "No! The living one is my son and the dead one is yours." But the first woman said, "No! The dead one is yours and the living one is mine." They argued back and forth before the king.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Hebrew creates a chiastic mirror: beni hachai uvenekh hammet ('my son the living and your son the dead') is reversed to benekh hammet uveni hechai ('your son the dead and my son the living'). The structure embodies the impasse — the claims are perfectly symmetrical and mutually exclusive. No amount of verbal testimony can resolve this. The narrator compresses the argument into its irreducible form to show why wisdom beyond ordinary judgment is required.
The phrase vattedabbernah lifnei hammelekh ('and they spoke before the king') uses the feminine plural, placing both women as active speakers in the royal court. The verb dibber ('to speak') in the piel stem suggests sustained, emphatic speech — this was not a brief exchange but a heated dispute.
The king said, "This one says, 'The living one is my son and the dead one is yours,' and that one says, 'No — the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.'"
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Solomon restates the competing claims with judicial precision, demonstrating that he has heard both sides fully. This restatement is not redundant — it serves as the formal judicial summary before rendering a verdict. By echoing both claims exactly, Solomon establishes that the evidence is perfectly balanced and that no conventional resolution exists. The repetition also builds narrative tension: the reader knows what Solomon will do, but the women do not.
The king said, "Bring me a sword." A sword was brought before the king.
KJV And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The command qechu li cherev ('bring me a sword') is shocking in a judicial setting. The cherev ('sword') is an instrument of war and execution, not adjudication. Solomon introduces violence — or the threat of it — into the courtroom precisely because the case cannot be resolved by words. The sword's arrival before the king (lifnei hammelekh) creates a moment of terrifying silence in the narrative. No one in the room knows what Solomon intends.
The king said, "Cut the living child in two. Give half to one and half to the other."
KJV And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The imperative gizru ('cut!') from the root gazar ('to cut, to divide, to decree') is deliberately ambiguous — gazar means both 'to cut physically' and 'to render a decree.' Solomon is simultaneously issuing a judicial decree and commanding a physical act. The horror of the command is the point: it creates an impossible situation that only genuine maternal love can resolve.
The phrase hayyeled hachai ('the living child') keeps the child's aliveness at the center of the sentence — the living child is what Solomon proposes to destroy. The clinical precision of lishnayim ('into two') and hachatsai... hachatsai ('half... half') treats the child as an object to be divided, which is exactly the dehumanization that will provoke the true mother's response.
Then the woman whose son was the living child spoke to the king — because her compassion burned fiercely for her son — and said, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Do not kill him!" But the other woman said, "He will be neither mine nor yours — cut him in two."
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb nikhmeru ('were stirred, burned') appears only three times in the Hebrew Bible: here, in Genesis 43:30 (Joseph's compassion for Benjamin), and in Hosea 11:8 (God's compassion for Israel). In all three cases, it describes an overwhelming, involuntary surge of love that overrides rational calculation. We rendered it as 'burned fiercely' to capture the intensity.
The noun rachamim ('compassion') from rechem ('womb') is one of Hebrew's most physically grounded abstract terms. Compassion in Hebrew is literally womb-feeling — the visceral protectiveness a mother feels for the child she carried. English 'compassion' (from Latin 'suffering with') captures the empathy but misses the maternal, bodily dimension.
The impostor's gezoru ('cut!') echoes Solomon's own command from verse 25, but with opposite intent. Solomon commanded the cut to reveal truth; the impostor demands it to destroy what she cannot have. The same word serves justice and vengeance depending on who speaks it.
The king responded, "Give the living baby to her. Do not kill him — she is his mother."
KJV Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Solomon's verdict echoes the true mother's own words almost exactly — tenu lah et hayyalud hachai ('give her the living child') — validating her plea by making it the royal decree. The decisive final clause hi immo ('she is his mother') is three words in Hebrew, absolute and without explanation. Solomon does not explain his reasoning or cite legal precedent. The judgment is self-evident to anyone who witnessed the test.
The verb vayya'an ('and he answered') from anah ('to answer, to respond') frames Solomon's decree as a response — not just to the case but to the revelation of truth that his own stratagem produced. The listening heart heard what it needed to hear.
All Israel heard about the judgment the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they recognized that the wisdom of God was within him to administer justice.
KJV 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.
Notes & Key Terms
2 terms
Key Terms
חׇכְמַת אֱלֹהִיםchokhmat Elohim
"the wisdom of God"—divine wisdom, God's wisdom, supernatural discernment
The construct phrase chokhmat Elohim ('the wisdom of God') is the chapter's final verdict on Solomon's gift. It is not human cleverness or political shrewdness but wisdom that belongs to God and has been placed within a human vessel. This phrase distinguishes Israelite wisdom theology from mere pragmatism: true wisdom originates in God and operates through those who receive it.
מִשְׁפָּטmishpat
"justice"—judgment, justice, legal decision, ordinance, custom, right
Mishpat appears at both the chapter's request (v11) and its conclusion (v28), forming an inclusio — a literary bracket. Solomon asked for the ability to hear mishpat; God gave him wisdom; and all Israel now witnesses the mishpat that wisdom produces. The word encompasses both the act of judging (the verdict) and the principle of justice (right order). Solomon's ruling is both a specific legal decision and a manifestation of cosmic justice operating through human institutions.
Translator Notes
The verb vayyir'u ('they feared, they stood in awe') from yare can mean terrified fear or reverent awe. In context, the people's response is awe at divine wisdom operating through a human king — not cowering terror but the recognition of something transcendent in their midst.
The phrase chokhmat Elohim beqirbo ('the wisdom of God within him') locates divine wisdom not in Solomon's mind but in his qerev ('inner being, midst, interior'). This is interior, indwelling wisdom — a gift that has become part of who Solomon is. The preposition be- ('in, within') indicates that God's wisdom has taken up residence inside the king.