1st Kings Chapter 3 verse 16 Holy Bible
Then there came two women that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.
read chapter 3 in ASV
Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king;
read chapter 3 in BBE
Then came two women, harlots, to the king, and stood before him.
read chapter 3 in DARBY
Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.
read chapter 3 in KJV
Then came there two women, that were harlots, to the king, and stood before him.
read chapter 3 in WBT
Then there came two women who were prostitutes, to the king, and stood before him.
read chapter 3 in WEB
then come in do two women, harlots, unto the king, and stand before him,
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - Then came there two women that were harlots [The Jewish writers here, as in the case of Rahab (Joshua 2:1), would understand "hostess," "innkeeper" (פונדקיתא, not פונדקן, as Bahr, which = , πανδοκεῖον, "inn"). In support of which it is alleged that prostitutes never have children, or if they have are not solicitous about them. The meaning "hostess," however (as if from זוּן, to feed), is not to be entertained for a moment, but we may readily admit that these children, though born out of wedlock, were not necessarily the offspring of professed harlots, though the fact that their mothers dwelt together and alone (ver. 17) is certainly suspicious; and see Gesen. s.v. זָנָה. Grotius, from Deuteronomy 23:17, concludes that they must have been foreigners. But it is equally probable that the law was constantly violated] unto the king [as supreme judge] and stood before him.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) Then came there.--The celebrated "judgment of Solomon," given here as a specimen of his wisdom, is simply an instance of intuitive sagacity, cutting the Gordian knot of hopeless difficulty by the appear to maternal instinct--an appeal which might, of course, fail, but which was, under the exceptional circumstances, the only appeal possible. It is in the knowledge how to risk failure rather than be reduced to impotence, and how to go straight to the heart of a difficulty when the slow, regular approaches of science are impossible, that we recognise what men call "a touch of genius," and what Scripture here calls the "wisdom of God."
