Biblical tradition Solomon's Judgment read in full. Judgment of Solomon biblical parable - a large book of wise parables from around the world

Judgment of Solomon

To begin the book with the judgment of the righteous, the cornerstone of justice, God himself commanded. About the judgment of Solomon, as a kind of standard of a wise, right and speedy judgment, they have been talking for almost three thousand years.

The third king of the Israeli-Jewish state, Solomon (Shlomo from the Hebrew “peaceful”, “graceful”; c. 965-928 BC) is now recognized as the greatest “sun-like” sage, the creator of the “golden age” of Israel. According to the Bible, the country prospered during the reign of Solomon. Only one gold monarch received 666 talents a year (over 30 tons) - for a small state this is a fantastic amount. No wonder the "three sixes" have become the cherished number of idolaters.
The king is the legislator, the supreme ruler and the judge of people, and it is by his judicial deeds that he is judged as a righteous or, on the contrary, an unrighteous sovereign.

Most often, the biblical story of two women and a baby is retold in their own words, but it is still better to quote a short, like the judgment itself, passage from Scripture.

“Then two harlot women came to the king and stood before him.
And one woman said: Oh, my lord! I and this woman live in the same house; and I gave birth with her in this house;
on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth; and we were together, and there was no stranger with us in the house; only we two were in the house;
and the woman's son died in the night, for she slept him;
and she arose in the night, and took my son from me, while I, your servant, was sleeping, and laid him on her breast, and she laid her dead son on my breast;
I got up in the morning to feed my son, and behold, he was dead; and when I looked at him in the morning, it was not my son whom I gave birth to.
And the other woman said: No, my son is alive, and your son is dead. And she told her: no, your son is dead, but mine is alive. And they spoke thus before the king.
And the king said, This one says, My son is alive, and your son is dead; and she says: no, your son is dead, and my son is alive.
And the king said, Give me a sword. And they brought the sword to the king.
And the king said, Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.
And that woman, whose son was alive, answered the king, for her whole inwardness was agitated from pity for her son: O my lord! give her this child alive and do not kill him. And the other said: let it not be either for me or for you, cut it down.
And the king answered and said, Give this living child, and do not kill him: she is his mother.
And all Israel heard of the judgment, as the king judged; and they began to fear the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to execute judgment.”
(1 Kings, ch. 3, vv. 16-28)

What a striking contrast to the modern court, long, mired in the waste of cases, the testimony of witnesses and the words of the participants in the process, often indifferent to the revelation of the truth and the fate of the condemned! It is not for nothing that the judgment of Solomon was depicted on frescoes and in paintings by Raphael, N. Poussin, Rubens, G. Dore, K. Flavitsky, N. Ge and others, and became a folklore plot for many peoples of the world. In Russia in the 16th-17th centuries, for example, there were many popular prints and handwritten collections of moralizing literature on this topic, and in the world the expression "Solomon's judgment" became winged.

Solomon clearly showed the original and only meaning of the court - justice, for which, in fact, laws are written in court. Smooth on paper, but in life the law is often a "drawbar", which is why the common phrase "Who are the judges?" (A.S. Griboedov). The question is not idle, because it is the judge who is endowed in court with the right to execute or pardon - not only according to the debate of the parties, but also according to his own conscience. Actually, it started from Solomon that the main figure of any court is the judge, and it is he who determines the quality and result of establishing the truth.

P.S. Isn't it true that "Solomon's decision" is much more merciful, fairer and more elegant than "Execution cannot be pardoned"?

Rice.
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Vicard "Judgment of Solomon", 1785, Museum of Fine Arts, Lille, France.

The tenth son of King David of Israel was named Solomon, which means "peaceful." Nothing is known about his childhood and upbringing. But when the time came for his father, King David, to die, he bequeathed the throne to Solomon, as the most capable, most intelligent among his many children. "And the trumpets blew and all the people cried out, Long live King Solomon."

After accession, Solomon made a great sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord appeared to him at night and asked: “What can I give you?” The young king did not want anything for himself, he did not need either fame or wealth, he asked for only one thing - to give him a reasonable, kind heart in order to fairly judge and manage the numerous people of Israel. The Lord promised. And then in Jerusalem, in front of the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon said a prayer of thanksgiving and arranged a great feast for many of his servants and subjects.

Solomon had sound judgment, an excellent memory, a vast store of knowledge, and considerable patience. He carefully listened to people, delved into their situations, helped with wise advice. And the fame of his wisdom and justice spread.

It is no coincidence that the most important duty that he assumed from the first days of his reign was judicial activity. He made a special vestibule near his palace with a throne on which he sat. And people came to this narthex who wanted to judge them. Solomon refused no one, and the fame of his righteous judgment quickly spread throughout Jerusalem.

Two young women lived in Jerusalem, each with a baby. They huddled in the same room and slept with their children. Once in a dream, one of them accidentally crushed her child, and he died. Out of desperation, she took a living baby from a sleeping neighbor and put it on her bed, and put her dead one on her. The next morning, the second woman saw a dead child near her and did not want to recognize him as her own. She accused her neighbor of cheating and forgery.

But the first woman, who accidentally crushed her child, did not want to confess what she had done, did not want to give away a living baby. They argued for a long time, accusing each other of various sins, but they did not come to any conclusion. And on the advice of good people, they went to the young king Solomon, so that he would resolve their dispute.
Solomon listened to each one, said nothing to them, and asked the servants to bring him a sword. “My decision is this,” he said. “There are two of you, one living child. Cut it in half, and let each one be comforted by its half.”

One woman said, "Give her this child alive and don't kill him." And the second said: “Let it be neither for me nor for you, chop.”

Solomon immediately guessed who the mother of the living child was and who was the deceiver who had taken him for herself. He told his guards: “Give the child to that woman who did not want him to die. She is the real mother of the child."

All the Israelites learned of Solomon's decision. The good ones rejoiced and fell in love with their young king for justice, for a righteous judgment even more, while the evil, dishonest ones were frightened, they realized that with such wise judging, any vice would be punished.

Nicholas Ge. Judgment of King Solomon.
1854.

Solomon's decision - so we call a fair, wise and speedy judgment.

The Bible tells us about King Solomon. He was the son of the illustrious King David and ruled the kingdom of Judah in the 10th century BC. It was Solomon who built the first temple in Jerusalem. But this king was especially famous for his wisdom.

Once in a dream, Solomon heard the voice of God, who said to him: "Ask what to give you." The king asked for wisdom to rule his people fairly. And because Solomon did not ask for any personal benefits, such as longevity or wealth, God fulfilled his request, making Solomon the wisest of kings.

One day, two women with a baby were brought to Solomon's court. They lived in the same house and with a difference of three days gave birth to sons. But at one of them the child died at night. The first woman claimed that her neighbor switched children, taking her living child for herself. The second claimed that she did nothing of the kind, and at night the child of the first woman died. How in this situation was to figure out which of the two women is telling the truth and is the real mother of the child? It was impossible to establish the truth without witnesses, and genetic analysis did not exist at that time. Then King Solomon ordered to bring a sword and divide the child between two women, cutting it in half. Hearing about this decision, the first woman screamed that the child should not be killed, but given to her neighbor. The second one was satisfied. “Let it be neither for me nor for you,” she said.

Then everyone understood who the real mother of the child was. By order of the king, the son was returned to the woman who asked to be left alive. This biblical story impressed many with a non-standard and subtle solution to a controversial issue. Hence the expression "Solomon's Judgment" firmly entrenched in our speech.

Solomon's judgment

Solomon's judgment
From the Bible. In the Old Testament (I Kings, Chapter 3, Articles 16-28) it is said that once two women came to the wise King Solomon with a request to resolve their dispute. One of them said that they live in the same house, and they had a son of the same age. Last night, another woman in a dream accidentally strangled her son (“slept off” him) and transferred the dead one to her, and took her living son to her and now passes him off as her own. Another woman claimed the opposite: allegedly the one who accuses her did it. And each of them claimed that the living child belongs to her.
Solomon ordered a sword to be brought to him (vv. 25-26): “And the king said, Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other. And that woman, whose son was alive, answered the king, for her whole inwardness was agitated from pity for her son: O my lord! give her this child alive and do not kill him. And the other said: let it not be, neither for me, nor for you, chop. So Solomon realized which of the two women was the true mother of the child, and gave him to the one who asked to save his life.
In Russia, this plot, called "The Judgment of Solomon", was widely known, since it was often found in popular prints and in handwritten collections of moral literature of the 16th-16th centuries.
Allegorically: the court is wise, right and quick.

Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003 .

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Book. Wise and swift judgement. /i> Goes back to the Bible. BMS 1998, 557 ...

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The primary source of the Bible (Old Testament, the Third Book of Kings, ch. 3, st. 16-28), which refers to the judgment of Solomon. see Solomon's judgment. Allegorically: a wise and unexpected decision, which is usually interpreted literally as a compromise decision, without offense "no ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions

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Now I will tell you how wisely Solomon judged and how he justly decided matters. In Jerusalem, two women lived in the same house, even in the same room. Both of them had small babies each. They had no nannies or cradles, and the children slept with their mothers on the same bed. Once one of them put her child too close to her, inadvertently pressed him to her chest, so that the baby could not breathe, and the poor thing suffocated. At night the woman woke up and looked at her child. And how frightened she was when she saw that he did not move or even breathe! I felt it, and it's cold. Then she realized that the child had died, that she had strangled him.

This woman sees that her neighbor is sleeping. Wait, she thinks to herself, no one will know that I strangled the baby. I'll change it." Slowly, she crept up to the sleeping neighbor, carefully took the living child from her, and slipped her dead one on her. And as if nothing had happened, she went to sleep on her bed with someone else's living child.

Another woman wakes up in the morning. He takes a child, wants to breastfeed him and does not believe his eyes - he is dead. She begins to peer and sees that this is not her child.

Children! Do you understand how much your mothers love you? See how tenderly, how attentively a kind mother looks at her tiny child. She knows what kind of nose, lips, eyes her child has; she knows where his spot is; she seems to have counted every hair on the baby's head.

“Give me my child! she screamed. Why did you change the baby? She stole a living one from me, and slipped me a dead one. "What you? Come to your senses! says the woman who strangled her child. “This is my child, and I will never give it to you.”

They argued, argued, quarreled, scolded, but the one who stole the child does not give the child to the real mother.

What to do? We decided to turn to the young king Solomon, let him decide who to give the child to. They come to the king. They start talking. One says: “This woman accidentally strangled her child this night and, when I was sleeping, she took my child alive, and put her dead one to me. Sovereign! Tell her to give my child." “No,” says another, “it was she who strangled her child, and now she wants me to give her my living one. Sovereign! Tell her to get away from me. I won't give her the baby." "My baby is alive!" one says. "No, not yours, but mine!" another argues. “You strangled a child,” says one. "No you!" - answers the other.

No matter how many women argued, it was impossible to get a sense of whose child it was. You and I would never have been able to solve this difficult matter. And Solomon decided. “Bring the sword here,” he said to the servant. The servant brought a large sharp sword. “Take a living child,” Solomon said, “cut it in half and give each woman half: let them not argue.” Don't be afraid kids, don't be afraid! Would Solomon really allow the poor child to be chopped up? Not! This is what he thought: “A real mother will not let him be cut. She would rather give it to another woman, if only her child were alive. And Solomon guessed right, he was not mistaken.

The woman who strangled her own child and dragged away someone else's said: "Let them cut the child - neither I nor you will get it." She, you see, did not feel sorry for someone else's child. And the real mother, whose child was substituted, began to ask that he not be killed. “Sir,” she pleaded with tears, “it’s better to give the child to this woman, just don’t kill him. May he stay alive." So Solomon found out which of the women is a real mother. He ordered her to give the child. How she rejoiced and thanked the king!

When the Israelites learned how wisely their young king judged, they began to respect him. The good ones rejoiced and loved the king, but the evil ones did not like him and were afraid of him.