Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”
An instance is here given of Solomon's wisdom, to show that the grant lately made him had a real effect upon him. The proof is fetched, not from the mysteries of state and the policies of the council-board, though there no doubt he excelled, but from the trial and determination of a cause between party and party, which princes, though they devolve them upon their...
Commenting on 1 Kings 3:16-28
Then the king answered and said, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it,.... That is, to her who desired it might not be slain, but rather be given to her who had no right to it: she is the mother thereof; which might be strongly concluded from her compassion for it, her eagerness and earnestness to have its life spared, and...
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].