16 Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him for judgment.3:16. "For judgment": implied by the fact they came before him. 17 One of the women spoke up, saying, "If it please Your Majesty: I share a house with this woman. I had a baby while she was living in the house. 18 Three days after the birth of my baby, this woman also had a baby. We were together; there was no one else in the house, just the two of us. 19 During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him. 20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while I was sleeping. She lay him close beside her to cuddle him, and she lay her dead son close beside me. 21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son I saw that he was dead. When I looked closely at him in the light I realized it wasn’t my son."
22 The other woman argued, "No! My son is the one that’s alive. Your son is the one that’s dead." The first woman objected, "No! Your son is the one that’s dead. My son is the one that’s alive." They went on quarrelling in front of the king.
23 The king intervened, saying, "So this woman says, ‘My son is the one that’s alive. Your son is the one that’s dead,’ while the other woman says, ‘No! Your son is the one that’s dead. My son is the one that’s alive.’"
24 "Bring me a sword," the king ordered. So they brought him a sword. 25 "Cut the child that’s alive in two, and give half to one woman and half to another," he commanded.
26 But the woman whose son was alive had so much love for him as a mother that she cried out to the king, "Please, Your Majesty, give her the boy! Don’t kill him!" But the other woman said, "He won’t be mine or yours—cut him in two!"
27 The king gave his verdict. "Give the child that’s alive to the first woman," he ordered. "On no account kill him, for she is his real mother."
28 When everyone in Israel heard about the verdict the king had delivered, they had great respect for the king, because they recognized the wisdom God had given him to judge rightly.