Episode 133: Two prostitutes and a baby

1 Kings 3-4

Solomon takes the Pharaoh's daughter and sacrifices 1000 animals to God

3 ¹ Solomon became friends with the Egyptian Pharaoh and took his daughter. He brought her to Jerusalem, while he built his house, God's house, and the wall around the city.

² But the people sacrificed in high places, since God's house hadn't been built yet.

³ Solomon loved God and lived like his father David, but he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

⁴ Solomon made 1000 burnt offerings at the great high place in Gibeon.

God appears to Solomon in a dream

⁵ While Solomon was in Gibeon, God appeared to him in a dream, and said, "What would you like me give to you?"

^6-9 Solomon said, “Wisdom.”

¹² God said,

Okay, I'll make you the wisest person who has ever lived.

¹³ I'll also make you the richest king.

¹⁴ And, if you'll walk in my ways like David did, then you'll live a long life.

¹⁵ But when Solomon awoke, he realized it was only a dream.

Two prostitutes and a baby

¹⁶ One day, two prostitutes came to Solomon. One of them said to him,

^17-21 I delivered a baby while living in the same house as this woman. When my baby was three days old, she delivered her own baby. Her baby died because she mistakenly laid on top of it. She got up at midnight and took my son while I was sleeping and laid her dead son next to me.

²² The other woman said, "No, the living son is mine. Hers is dead."

²³ Solomon said, "Bring me a sword."

²⁵ When a sword was brought, Solomon said,

Cut the baby in two and give one half to each woman.

²⁶ The mother of the living baby said, "Don't kill the child. Give it to her."

The other mother said, "Go ahead and cut it in two."

²⁷ Then King Solomon said, "Give the child to the first woman. She is the mother."

²⁸ And after that, everyone feared Solomon and saw that the wisdom of God was in him.

Solomon was wiser than Heman

4 ²⁰ There were as many people in Judah and Israel as there are grains of sand on all the shores of the sea. They all ate, drank, and were merry.

²¹ Solomon's kingdom spread from Egypt and the land of the Philistines to the Euphrates River. Everyone served him and brought him lots of presents.

²² Every day Solomon got 30 measures of flour, 60 measures of meal, 10 fat oxen, 100 fatted fowls, and a partridge in a pear tree.

^24-25 Everyone in Judah and Israel lived in peace under his vine and fig tree.

²⁶ And Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses and 12,000 horsemen.

²⁹ God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, and a heart that was like the sand on the seashore.

³¹ He was, in fact, wiser than any man who has ever lived. He was even wiser than Heman!

³² Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1005 songs.

³³ He talked about trees, beasts, creeping things, and fishes.

³³ Everyone came from all over the earth just to hear him speak.