45. This was their dispute, in which either tried
to claim the living child for herself, and denied that the dead one was
hers. Then the king commanded a sword to be brought and the
infant to be cut in half, and either piece to be given to one, one half
to the one, and one half to the other. Then the woman whose the
child really was, moved by her feelings, cried out: “Divide
not the child, my lord; let it rather be given to her and live, and do
not kill it.” But the other answered: “Let it
be neither mine nor hers, divide it.” Then the king ordered
that the
infant should be
given to the woman who had said: Do not kill it, but give it to
that woman; “For,” as it says, “her bowels yearned
upon her son.” 1 [3] Kings
iii. 26.