16Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.17And the one woman said, "Please, my lord, I and this woman live in one house, and I gave birth with her in the house."18And it happened on the third day after I gave birth that this woman also gave birth, and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house except the two of us in the house.19And the child of this woman died during the night in which she lay upon him.20And she rose in the middle of the night and took my child from beside me while your maidservant slept, and she laid him in her embrace, and she laid her dead child in my embrace.21And I rose in the morning to nurse my child, and behold, he was dead; and I examined him in the morning, and behold, he was not my child whom I had borne.22And the other woman said, "No, for my child is the living one and your child is the dead one," while this woman said, "No, for your child is the dead one and my child is the living one," and they spoke before the king.23And the king said, "This woman says, 'This is my child, the living one, and your child is the dead one,' and that woman says, 'No, for your child is the dead one and my child is the living one.'"24And the king said, "Bring a sword to me," and they brought the sword before the king.25And the king said, "Divide the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other."26And the woman whose child was the living one said to the king, because her compassion grew warm upon her child, "Please, my lord, give her the living child who was born and do not kill him," and this woman said, "He shall not be cut for me or for you."27And the king answered and said, "Give her the living child who was born and do not kill him; she is his mother."28And all Israel heard the judgment that the king rendered, and they feared before the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him to render justice.