Give Her the Living Child

Soon after Hashem granted Shlomo a listening heart, two women came and stood before the king. The first spoke. This woman and I live in one house, she said, and we each gave birth, three days apart, with no one else there. In the night her son died, because she lay on him. She rose at midnight, took my son from beside me while I slept, and laid her dead child in my arms. In the morning, when I looked closely, I saw that it was not the son I had borne. No, cried the other, the living one is mine, and the dead one is yours. And so they argued before the king.

Shlomo repeated their words: this one says the living child is hers, and that one says the same. Bring me a sword, he said. When the sword was brought, he ordered: cut the living child in two, and give half to each. The true mother's heart burned within her. Please, my lord, she pleaded, give her the living child, only do not kill him. The other said: let him be neither mine nor yours; cut. Then the king answered: give the living child to the first woman, and do not kill him. She is his mother.

All Israel heard the judgment and stood in awe of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of Hashem was in him to do justice. The Midrash says this was the meaning of the verse that Shlomo sat on the throne of Hashem: as the throne of Hashem judges without witnesses, so Shlomo judged this case, where no witness stood.