Miketz
This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh.
I Kings 3:15 – 3:28
Chapter 3
15 Then Solomon awoke: it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented offerings of well-being; and he made a banquet for all his courtiers.
16 Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The first woman said, “Please, my lord! This woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 On the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, just the two of us in the house. 19 During the nightthis woman’s child died, because she lay on it. 20 She arose in the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him in her bosom. 21 When I arose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, it was not the son I had borne.”
22 The other woman sopke up, “No, the live one is my son, and the dead one is yours!” But the first insisted, “No, the dead boy is yours; mine is the live one!” And they went on arguing before the king.
23 The king said, “One says, ‘This is my son, the live one, and the dead one is yours’; and the other says, ‘No, the dead boy is yours, mine is the live one.'” 24 So the king gave the order, “Fetch me a sword.” A sword was brought before the king, 25 and the king said, “Cut the live child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.”
26 But the woman whose son was the live one pleaded with the king, for she was overcome with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she cried, “give her the live child; only don’t kill it!” The other insisted, “It shall be neither yours nor mine; cut it in two!” 27Then the king spoke up. “Give the live child to her, “he said, “and do not put it to death; she is its mother.”
28 When all Israel heard the decision that the king had rendered, they stood in awe of the king; for they saw that he possessed divine wisdom to execute justice.
Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
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