Section Seventeen

Solomon’s Wisdom

There is a famous story in the Bible about David’s son Solomon. In this story, Solomon judges between two women (both prostitutes) in order to decide to which woman a baby belonged. In the lead up to this story, Solomon is bestowed with his famous wisdom. Solomon realises that he is ill-equipped to lead God’s people unless he has a God-given ability to distinguish right from wrong. He says that he feels like a ‘little child’. He is given this wisdom and his first test is the story of the two prostitutes. They come before Solomon with a baby. They then tell the story that they live in the same house and both had babies. One of the babies dies, and now they both lay claim to the surviving baby. In his now famous judgement Solomon orders that the baby be cut into two and half given to each woman. When one of the women says to give the baby to the other woman, Solomon knows that this woman is the real mother. Baby and mother are then reunited.