Melakhim I Chapter 3 | The Judgment of Shlomo

Our chapter is packed with significant events that establish Shlomo’s kingship. We will briefly discuss three points, each of which can be read independently.

The Dream in Givon

God appears to Shlomo in a dream, granting him the opportunity to request a wish. Shlomo's response — to ask for wisdom to judge, rather than wealth and honor — reveals his awareness as he assumes his role: an emphasis on the commitment and responsibility to judge the people of Israel justly, rather than focusing on his future status as a respected king. Shlomo's request pleases God, and he is promised both the wisdom he requested and the wealth and honor he did not ask for. It is possible that Shlomo’s request for judicial wisdom stems from a critical point connected to David’s kingship. In David’s anointing, we encountered the foundational statement, “The Lord sees into the heart.” In our chapter, Shlomo mentions the integrity of David’s heart and asks to be granted a listening heart to judge the people of Israel justly. Shlomo seeks to follow the path of his father David, who had a righteous heart, and God promises him “a wise and discerning heart like no one before you has ever had, and no one after you will arise like you.” Later, in Shlomo’s famous judgment, we indeed see his ability to penetrate the hearts of the litigants — a capability that is inherently beyond human reach and belongs to God alone.

The Judgment of Shlomo

How did Shlomo decide the case of the two women? Did he rely solely on the test of the sword at the end of the story? Many commentators and scholars have rejected the notion that the sword test was the sole determinant. The Abarbanel suggested that the accuser (the one who elaborates her story) is the true mother. The one who speaks at length is likely telling the truth, while the defendant, who responds briefly, is lying. Someone who knows he is lying prefers to minimize his words. On the other hand, the Malbim argued that the defendant, who responds briefly to the accuser’s claims, is the true mother of the living child because she refers to the living child before mentioning the deceased one. Prof. Moshe Garsiel, in the excerpt attached, proposes resolving this question through a careful examination of the story’s narrative sequence and the details of the women’s arguments. He claims that the accuser who speaks at length is the mother of the living child. However, as the story progresses, our experience as readers leaves us uncertain about who the true mother is, which amplifies the surprise of Shlomo’s ultimate verdict.

Two intriguing points arise from Garsiel’s observations:
1. The accuser addresses the king directly to present her claims methodically, while the defendant impulsively responds to the accuser, not addressing the king directly.
2. The accuser is precise in her words: she states that she laid her child to sleep next to her, while the defendant, in switching the infants, placed the child in her lap, repeating the same negligence that could lead to the child’s death.

Seeds of Shlomo’s Decline

This chapter takes place during the period when Shlomo’s kingdom was flourishing, but in Chapter 11, we will see the beginning of his decline. Chazal criticized some of the events in this chapter, suggesting that the seeds of this decline were already present in Chapter 3. For example, regarding Shlomo’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter, the verses in this chapter do not yet criticize it, but Chazal say: “Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: When Shlomo married Pharaoh’s daughter, Gavriel descended from heaven and implanted a reed into the sea, and a sandbar grew in it, growing larger each year, and upon it the great city of Rome was built” (Bavli Shabbat 56b). Even regarding the Judgment of Shlomo, Chazal expressed criticism: “Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Rabbi Ilai: Had I had been there, I would have wrapped soft wool around his neck, as when he said, ‘Bring me a sword,’ had [the mother] not been overcome by mercy for him [her child], he would have been killed. Regarding that moment, it says: ‘Woe is you, land, whose king is a lad’” (Kohelet Rabba 10:16).

Given this, it is worth examining the verse at the chapter’s beginning: “Shlomo loved the Lord and followed the laws of his father David, but he still offered sacrifices and incense on the high shrines” (3:3). This phrasing is familiar later in Melakhim as a template for evaluating the religious level of a king based on his worship of God and his usage of high shrines (במות). However, in this chapter, the Temple has not yet been built, and the prohibition on high shrines is not yet in effect. Why, then, is Shlomo described as righteous except for his act of sacrificing on the high shrines? However one interprets it, this verse already reflects a slight reservation about Shlomo’s righteousness.

The question of how to evaluate Shlomo’s great and impressive deeds is a key issue and will continue to accompany us in the coming chapters. Even in his significant and positive actions, the lingering question remains: Are there problematic elements involved that may ultimately lead to the decline we see later?