Solomon made a very wise decision concerning two women

16 One day two prostitutes came and stood in front of King Solomon. 17 One of them said, “Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was there in the house. 18 Three days after my baby was born, this woman also gave birth to a baby. Only the two of us were in the house; there was no one else there.

19 “But one night this woman’s baby died because she accidentally rolled on top of her baby while sleeping and smothered it. 20 So she got up at midnight and took my baby boy who was lying beside me while I was sleeping. She carried him to her bed and brought her dead baby and put it in my bed. 21 When I awoke the next morning and was ready to nurse my baby, I saw that it was dead. But when I looked at it closely in the morning light, I saw that it was not my baby!”

22 But the other woman said, “That is not true! The baby that is alive is mine, and the baby that is dead is yours!” Then the first woman said, “No, the dead baby is yours, and the one that is alive is mine!” And they continued to argue in front of the king.

23 Then the king said, “Both of you are saying, ‘My baby is the one that is alive and the one that is dead is yours.’ ” 24 So he said to one of his servants, “Bring me a sword.” So the servant brought a sword to the king. 25 Then the king said to the servant, “Cut the baby that is alive into two parts. Give one part to each of the women.”

26 But the woman whose baby was alive loved her baby very much, so she said to the king, “No, Your Majesty! Do not allow him to kill the baby! Give her the child that is alive!” But the other woman said to the king, “No, cut it in half. Then it will not be her baby or my baby.”

27 Then the king said to the servant, “Do not kill the baby. Give the baby to the woman who said ‘Do not cut the baby in half,’ because she is truly the baby’s mother.”

28 All the Israeli people heard about what the king had decided, and they revered him. They realized that God had truly enabled him to be very wise, to judge people’s matters fairly.