3:16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 3:17 One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house. 3:18 Then three days after I had my baby, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one else in the house except the two of us. 24 3:19 This woman’s child suffocated 25 during the night when she rolled 26 on top of him. 3:20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your servant was sleeping. She put him in her arms, and put her dead son in my arms. 3:21 I got up in the morning to nurse my son, and there he was, 27 dead! But when I examined him carefully in the morning, I realized it was not my baby.” 28 3:22 The other woman said, “No! My son is alive; your son is dead!” But the first woman replied, “No, your son is dead; my son is alive.” Each presented her case before the king. 29
3:23 The king said, “One says, ‘My son is alive; your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘No, your son is dead; my son is alive.’” 3:24 The king ordered, “Get me a sword!” So they placed a sword before the king. 3:25 The king then said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other!” 3:26 The real mother 30 spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. 31 She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” 32 But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!” 3:27 The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.” 3:28 When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected 33 the king, for they realized 34 that he possessed supernatural wisdom 35 to make judicial decisions.
4:29 God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding 36 was as infinite as the sand on the seashore. 4:30 Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all the sages of Egypt. 37 4:31 He was wiser than any man, including Ethan the Ezrahite or Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He was famous in all the neighboring nations. 38 4:32 He composed 39 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. 4:33 He produced manuals on botany, describing every kind of plant, 40 from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on walls. He also produced manuals on biology, describing 41 animals, birds, insects, and fish. 4:34 People from all nations came to hear Solomon’s display of wisdom; 42 they came from all the kings of the earth who heard about his wisdom.
5:17 “Now if the king is so inclined, 52 let a search be conducted in the royal archives 53 there in Babylon in order to determine whether King Cyrus did in fact issue orders for this temple of God to be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us a decision concerning this matter.”
6:1 So Darius the king issued orders, and they searched in the archives 54 of the treasury which were deposited there in Babylon.
29:16 I was a father 55 to the needy,
and I investigated the case of the person I did not know;
1 tn Heb “a hearing heart.” (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)
2 tn Heb “to judge.”
3 tn Heb “to understand between good and evil.”
4 tn Heb “for”; the word “otherwise” is used to reflect the logical sense of the statement.
5 tn Heb “who is able?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”
6 tn Heb “to judge.”
7 tn Heb “your numerous people.”
8 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in v.15 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
9 tn Heb “And the thing was good in the eyes of the Lord, for Solomon asked for this thing.”
10 tn Heb “because you asked for this thing, and did not ask for yourself many days and did not ask for yourself riches and did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you asked for yourself understanding to hear judgment.”
11 tn This statement is introduced in the Hebrew text by the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) which draws attention to and emphasizes what follows.
12 tn Heb “I am doing according to your words.” The perfect tense is sometimes used of actions occurring at the same time a statement is made.
13 tn This statement is introduced by the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) which draws attention to and emphasizes what follows. The translation assumes that the perfect tense here indicates that the action occurs as the statement is made (i.e., “right now I give you”).
14 tn Heb “heart.” (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)
15 tn Heb “so that there has not been one like you prior to you, and after you one will not arise like you.”
16 tn The translation assumes that the perfect tense here indicates that the action occurs as the statement is made.
17 tn Heb “so that there is not one among the kings like you all your days.” The LXX lacks the words “all your days.”
18 tn Heb “walk in my ways.”
19 tn Or “keeping.”
20 tn Heb “walked.”
21 tn Heb “I will lengthen your days.”
22 tn Heb “and look, a dream.”
23 tn Or “tokens of peace”; NIV, TEV “fellowship offerings.”
24 sn There was no one else in the house except the two of us. In other words, there were no other witnesses to the births who could identify which child belonged to which mother.
25 tn Heb “died.”
26 tn Heb “lay, slept.”
27 tn Heb “look.”
28 tn Heb “look, it was not my son to whom I had given birth.”
29 tn Heb “they spoke before the king.” Another option is to translate, “they argued before the king.”
30 tn Heb “the woman whose son was alive.”
31 tn Heb “for her compassions grew warm for her son.”
32 tn The infinitive absolute before the negated jussive emphasizes the main verb.
33 tn Heb “feared,” perhaps in the sense, “stood in awe of.”
34 tn Heb “saw.”
35 tn Heb “the wisdom of God within him.”
36 tn Heb “heart,” i.e., mind. (The Hebrew term translated “heart” often refers to the mental faculties.)
37 tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.”
38 tn Heb “his name was in all the surrounding nations.”
39 tn Heb “spoke.”
40 tn Heb “he spoke about plants.”
41 tn Heb “he spoke about.”
42 tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon.”
43 tn Aram “the book of the minutes.”
44 tn Aram “of your fathers.”
45 tn Aram “discover…and learn.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a single concept.
46 tn Aram “is a rebellious city.”
47 tn Aram “revolts they are making in its midst.”
48 tn Aram “from olden days.” So also in v. 19.
49 tn Aram “from me was placed a decree.”
50 tn Aram “and they searched and found.”
51 tn Aram “are being done.”
52 tn Aram “if upon the king it is good.”
53 tn Aram “the house of the treasures of the king.”
54 tn Aram “the house of the archives.”
55 sn The word “father” does not have a wide range of meanings in the OT. But there are places that it is metaphorical, especially in a legal setting like this where the poor need aid.