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Solomon’s Wisdom in Judgement

16 Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷One woman said, ‘Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. ¹⁸Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. ¹⁹Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. ²¹When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.’ ²²But the other woman said, ‘No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.’ The first said, ‘No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.’ So they argued before the king.

23 Then the king said, ‘One says, “This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead”; while the other says, “Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.” ’ ²⁴So the king said, ‘Bring me a sword’, and they brought a sword before the king. ²⁵The king said, ‘Divide the living boy in two; then give half to one, and half to the other.’ ²⁶But the woman whose son was alive said to the king—because compassion for her son burned within her—‘Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!’ The other said, ‘It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.’ ²⁷Then the king responded: ‘Give the first woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.’ ²⁸All Israel heard of the judgement that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice.

⁴⁹ Remember your word to your servant,
   in which you have made me hope.
⁵⁰ This is my comfort in my distress,
   that your promise gives me life.
⁵¹ The arrogant utterly deride me,
   but I do not turn away from your law.
⁵² When I think of your ordinances from of old,
   I take comfort, O Lord.
⁵³ Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked,
   those who forsake your law.
⁵⁴ Your statutes have been my songs
   wherever I make my home.
⁵⁵ I remember your name in the night, O Lord,
   and keep your law.
⁵⁶ This blessing has fallen to me,
   for I have kept your precepts.

19 ‘Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’ ²⁰The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?’ ²¹Jesus answered them, ‘I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. ²²Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. ²³If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath? ²⁴Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.’