CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 3:16. Harlots—The Rabbins derive זנוֹת from זוּן, to feed, nourish; and the Targumist translates the word here, and in Joshua 2:1, by פונדקן, pundekon, hostesses, tavern-keepers.
1 Kings 3:20. Laid her dead child in my bosom—In order to escape the suspicion and charge of having killed her own child.
1 Kings 3:26. Her bowels yearned upon her son: רַחֲמִים, a Hebrew phrase for the seat of feeling, hence here “the tender mother love” (Keil); “for her motherly heart burned for her son” (Luther).
1 Kings 3:27. Saw that the wisdom of God was in him—Not that there was anything supernatural in Solomon’s method of settling this dispute, but that it proved this youthful king had penetrating discernment and acquaintance with the workings of the human heart.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 3:16-28
THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON
The gifts of God are not permitted to remain long unused. He who bestows them finds ample opportunity for their employment. A case is speedily brought before Solomon which brings into exercise the faculty of wisdom with which he was supernaturally endowed; and his startling decision made a profound impression on the people, and added greatly to his reputation. The pattern-instance, as recorded in these verses, is, in all its features, thoroughly Oriental. Examples are recorded in ancient history of similar judicial penetration.—(See Kitto, Dr. A. Clarke, Lange). But the sagacity displayed by Solomon in the instance before us was most wonderful, and evinced to all that, though young in years, he was fully competent to fulfil the duties of the lofty position to which he was raised.
I. The judgment of Solomon was exercised on a case of peculiar difficulty.
1. It was too difficult for ordinary tribunals to settle. The case had, doubtless, been brought before a court where it was customary to hear and decide upon ordinary disputes and offences; but this was altogether beyond the capacity of the judge to settle. The final appeal must, therefore, be made to the king, and his judgment be irrevocable. There are questions sometimes brought before our law courts so involved and contradictory that the penetration of the ablest judge fails to detect the real transgressor, and the power of justice is for the time paralyzed. But the great Omniscient cannot be deceived; and the day is coming when He will reveal the secrets of all hearts, and redress the wrongs of the universe.
2. The disputants were of questionable character. “There came two women that were harlots”—persons of abandoned character. The word is also rendered victuallers or hostesses. Perhaps they were both, though they could not be common harlots, for such would hardly have ventured into the presence of the king. One sin injures the whole character, and there are some sins which cast suspicion on the veracity of the transgressor, however solemn his asseverations. The value of testimony hinges on rectitude of personal character. The greatest difficulties of our law judges arise from the unreliable nature of the evidence they have to sift.
3. The testimonies were evenly balanced (1 Kings 3:22-23). The stout affirmation of the one mother was met by the flat denial of the other. Their testimonies were of equal credit—i.e., of none at all. As there was no evidence, it seemed impossible to arrive at any decision, and the whole court seemed held in suspense, and unable to tell which to believe. But Solomon was equal to the occasion, and had made up his mind how to solve the difficulty.
II. The judgment of Solomon was successful by an appeal to maternal affection.
1. This appeal was sudden. Every opportunity had been given to each woman to state her case. The king had patiently listened, and shown every disposition to administer equal justice. There was nothing more to say but what would be a repetition of what had been already said. A painful pause had come in the progress of the trial, when, as if moved by a sudden inspiration, the king speaks. The actions which have had the most important bearing on the destinies of individuals have often been the result of a spontaneous impulse. When truth is quickly apprehended it is wisest to act promptly.
2. This appeal was apparently severe. “And the king said, bring me a sword” (1 Kings 3:24) Doubtless some of the wiser hearers smiled upon each other, and thought in themselves, What! will the young king cut these knotty causes in pieces? Will he divide justice with edged tools? Will he smite at hazard before conviction? There was a law concerning the dividing of a living ox and a dead one (Exodus 21:35); but that did not reach his case. The heart of kings is unsearchable (Proverbs 25:3). That sword which had served for execution, shall now serve for trial. “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” Oh! divine oracle of justice, commanding that which it would not have done, that it might find out that which could not be discovered? Neither God nor his deputies may be so taken at their words, as if they always intended their commands for action, and not sometimes for probation.—Bp. Hall.
3. This appeal revealed a deep practical insight into human nature. The mother’s heart was touched, and, without the aid of argument and cross-examination, the great discovery was made. The yearning affection of the true mother for the child whose life was thus threatened stood out in prominent contrast to the cold, callous attitude of her adversary. The case is strikingly put by Bishop Hall:—This sword hath already pierced the breast of the true mother, and divided her heart with fear and grief at so killing a sentence: there needs no other rack to discover nature, and now she thinks—woe is me, that came for justice, and am answered with cruelty! “Divide ye the living child!” Alas! what hath that poor infant offended, that it survives, and is sued for? How much less miserable had I been that my child had been smothered in my sleep, than mangled before mine eyes! If a dead carcase could have satisfied me, I need not to have complained! What a woeful condition am I fallen into, who am accused to be the death of my supposed child already, and now shall be the death of my own! If there were no loss of my child, yet how can I endure this torment of my own bowels? And while she thinks thus, she sues to that suspected mercy of her just judge—“Oh, my Lord, give her the living child, and slay him not!” as thinking, if he live, he shall but change a mother; if he die, his mother loseth a son: while he lives, it shall be my comfort that I have a son, though I may not call him so; dying, he perisheth to both. Contrarily, her envious competitor, as holding herself well satisfied that her neighbour should be as childless as herself, can say, “Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.” Well might Solomon and every hearer conclude, that either she was no mother, or a monster, that could be content with the murder of her child; and that, if she could have been the true mother, and yet have desired the blood of her infant, she had been as worthy to have been stripped of her child for so foul unnaturalness, as the other had been worthy to enjoy him for her honest compassion. Not more justly than wisely, therefore, doth Solomon trace the true mother by the footsteps of love and pity; and adjudgeth the child to those bowels that had yearned at his danger.
III. The judgment of Solomon won the respect and confidence of the people (1 Kings 3:28). The justice of the sentence made a deep impression upon the whole people. They saw that he judged impartially; that they could not impose on him; and they were afraid to do those things which might bring them before his judgment seat. They acknowledged the Divine source of his marvellous endowment. “They saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.” What was done to the other woman we are not told; justice certainly required that she should be punished for her lies and fraud. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise: it is better than weapons of war (Ecclesiastes 7:19; Ecclesiastes 9:18). Good men reverence, and bad men stand in awe of, the wise.
LESSONS:—
1. To do justice is one of the most important duties of the sovereign.
2. Divine help is needed and should be sought in order wisely to discriminate between right and wrong.
3. The Divine justice is unerring, and all its decisions irrevocable.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 3:16-28. Sin infallibly exposed.
1. Notwithstanding the secrecy of its indulgence.
2. Notwithstanding the subtlety and ability of its defenders.
3. Notwithstanding the deceptive contradictions of its evidence.
Every part of the incident is characteristic. The two mothers, degraded as was their condition, came, as the Eastern stories so constantly tell of the humblest classes, to demand justice from the king. He patiently listens; the people stand by, wondering what the child-like sovereign will determine. The mother of the living child tells her tale with all the plaintiveness and particularity of truth, and describes how, as she “looked at him again and again, behold it was not my son which I did bear.” The king determines, by throwing himself upon the instincts of nature, to cut asunder the sophistry of argument. The living child was to be divided, and the one half given to one, the other half to the other. The true mother betrays her affection: O, my Lord, give her the living babe (the word is peculiar), and in no wise slay it.” The king repeats, word for word, the cry of the mother, as if questioning its meaning. “Give her the living babe, and in no wise slay it? then bursts forth into his own conviction: She is the mother.”—Stanley.
Solomon’s wise judgment.
1. The question in dispute (1 Kings 3:16-22).
2. The decision (1 Kings 3:23-28).—Lisco.
1 Kings 3:17-22. Such sin brings together, but it unites only for a short time, for it produces discord, wrangling, and controversy. Abiding peace dwells only in the house where the God of peace binds hearts together. He who takes from the heart of a mother her child, or estranges or deprives her, will not escape the righteous tribunal of the judge to whom the mother calls and appeals. Litigation is generally associated with envy, falsehood, and unrighteousness; hence the Lord says, “Be ready,” &c. (Matthew 5:25; Luke 12:58).—Lange.
1 Kings 3:19. The perils of infant life.
1. Arising from the ignorance and inexperience of those on whom it is dependent.
2. From its own fragile and defenceless condition.
3. From the consequences of others’ sins.
4. Are avoided only by the mercy and protecting care of heaven.
1 Kings 3:25-27. Even in morality it is thus also; truth as it is one, so it loves entireness; falsehood, division. Satan, that hath no right to the heart, would be content with a piece of it; God, that made it all, will have either the whole or none. The erroneous church strives with the true for the living child of saving doctrine; each claims it for her own; heresy, conscious of her own injustice, would be content to go away with a leg or an arm of sound principles, as hoping to make up the rest with her own mixtures; truth cannot abide to part with a joint, and will rather endure to lose all by violence than a piece through willing connivancy.—Bishop Hall.
1 Kings 3:26. If an immoral woman be merciful for the son of her body, and cannot forget her little child, how much more should every Christian mother be ready to offer, when necessary, the heaviest sacrifice to deliver her child from moral ruin. If in the hearts of sinners the love of father and mother be so strong, how strong must the fatherly love of God be (Isaiah 49:15)! Envy hardens all human feeling, and makes one hard and heartless.
1 Kings 3:27-28. When a child, apparently given over to death, is restored to its parents by Divine providence, so much the more must their chief solicitude be to educate and bring it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Not power and force; not great pomp, and pride, and tyranny; but wisdom and righteousness give to the government authority, and call forth genuine fear and the voluntary obedience of the people. If it were given to a Solomon to bring to disgrace lying and misrepresentation by judicial wisdom and knowledge of the human heart, and to deliver a righteous judgment, how much less shall liars and hypocrites stand up under the tribunal of Him who could say, “A greater than Solomon is here!” who, without needing witnesses and judicial examination, will bring to light what is hidden in darkness (1 Corinthians 4:5), and before whose judgment seat we must all appear (2 Corinthians 5:10)?—Lange.