,
"Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house. While with her in
the house I had a child. Three days later this woman also had a child,
and we were alone by ourselves in the house. While we two were alone
this woman's child died in the night, because she lay upon it.

"Then she rose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your
servant slept, and laid it on her breast and laid her dead child on
mine. When I rose at dawn to nurse my child, there it was dead; but when
I looked at it closely in the morning, I found that it was not my son."
Then the other woman said, "No; the living is my son, and the dead child
is your son." So they quarrelled before Solomon.

Then Solomon said, "One says, 'This one who is alive is my son, and your
son is dead.' But the other says, 'No; your son is dead, and my son is
the one that is alive.' Bring me a sword." So they brought him a sword.
Then he said, "Divide the living child in two and give half to the one
and half to the other." At that the woman to whom the living child
belonged spoke to Solomon--for she loved her son with all her heart--and
said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child and on no account put it
to death." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours!
Divide it!" Then Solomon said, "Give the first woman the living child,
and on no account put it to death; she is its mother."

When all Israel heard of the decision which Solomon had given, they had
great respect for him, for they saw that he had divine wisdom to decide
questions justly.

BUILDING A GREAT TEMPLE

In the fourth year of Solomon's rule over Israel he built the temple of
Jehovah. The temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and
forty-five feet high. The porch before the large room of the temple was
thirty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. Solomon made windows for the
temple with casings, broad on the inside and narrow on the outside.

The temple was built with stone which had been made ready at the quarry;
neither hammer nor chisel nor any iron tool was heard while the temple
was building. Against the wall of the temple on the outside Solomon
built wings, both around the larger room and the inner room, and made
side-chambers around the temple.

The entrance to the lower side-chambers was on the south side of the
temple. Winding stairs led to the second floor, and from the second to
the third. Solomon built the wings against the sides of the temple, each
seven and a