(16) В¶ Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. (17) And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. (18) And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. (19) And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it. (20) And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. (21) And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. (22) And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. (23) Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. (24) And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. (25) And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. (26) Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. (27) Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
Here was an opportunity very speedily afforded, after the Lord's pouring out an understanding heart upon Solomon, for the exercise of it. No doubt, it became a very nice point, as there were no eye wit nesses to determine whose representation was true. Solomon showed his penetration by the proposed division of the living child. Not that the king would really have put it to the experiment; but it was to decide by calling forth the tender feeling of the real mother. The pretended mother, in a moment, plainly proved that she could never be the mother of a child, to consent to the slaughter of it for division. I would only desire the Reader to remark, the melancholy circumstance which those wretched women called harlots have, in a multitude of instances, shown by the willful murder of their base children. In order to hide their disgrace from men, they bid defiance to God: and in what nature shudders at, the murdering of their own poor, unconscious babes, have sought relief from their shame of uncleanness. Alas! what a state our nature is sunk to! There is another instruction we ought to gather from this view of the subject, namely, that while we behold this harlot with bowels yearning over her child for the salvation of the body; how ought it to teach every true parent to feel for the salvation of the soul? Oh! how lost to all bowels of compassion must those wretched parents be, who can look on and see the sword of God's offended justice uplifted, and ready to fall on their children, by reason of sin; and yet send forth no cry, offer up no prayer; nay, remain themselves and their children unconscious also, that without an interest in Jesus, who, like another Solomon, may stop the sword from its office, they must perish forever! Oh! precious Jesus! how is it possible for me to read this instance of the sword ready to devour, and not call to mind how the Lord Jehovah commanded the sword to awake and smite thee, who art fellow to the Lord of Hosts, that the Lord might lay his hand upon the little ones? Surely when thou wast smitten we escaped, and by thy stripes we were healed. Zechariah 13:7; Isaiah 53:1.