1 Kings 3:25
Good News Translation
he said, "Cut the living child in two and give each woman half of it."

New Revised Standard Version
The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.”

Contemporary English Version
"Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him."

New American Bible
he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.”

Douay-Rheims Bible
Divide, said he, the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Divide, said he, the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.

1 Kings 3:28 And all Israel heard the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, seeing that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.

. The two following instances are in some faint manner to be compared to Solomon's decision, inasmuch as they also work upon the human sympathies. Suetionius, in his Life of the emperor Claudian, tells us, that this emperor discovered a woman to be the real mother of a young man, whom she refused to acknowledge, by commanding her to marry him, the proofs being doubtful on both sides; for, rather than commit incest, she confessed the truth. Diodorus Siculus also informs us, that Ariopharnes, king of Thrace, being appointed to decided between three young men, each of whom professed to be the son of the deceased king of the Cimmerians, and claimed the succession, discovered the real son by ordering each to shoot an arrow into the dead body of the king: two of them did this without hesitation; but the real son of the deceased monarch refused.

Proverbs 25:8 The things which thy eyes have seen, utter not hastily in a quarrel: lest afterward thou mayst not be able to make amends, when thou hast dishonoured thy friend.

Context
Solomon Judges Wisely
24The king therefore said: Bring me a sword. And when they had brought a sword before the king, 25Divide, said he, the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.26But the woman, whose child was alive, said to the king; (for her bowels were moved upon her child) I beseech thee, my lord, give her the child alive, and do not kill it. But the other said: Let it be neither mine nor thine; but divide it.…
Cross References
1 Kings 3:24
The king therefore said: Bring me a sword. And when they had brought a sword before the king,

1 Kings 3:26
But the woman, whose child was alive, said to the king; (for her bowels were moved upon her child) I beseech thee, my lord, give her the child alive, and do not kill it. But the other said: Let it be neither mine nor thine; but divide it.

1 Kings 3:24
Top of Page
Top of Page