Solomon's court

Solomon's court
From the Bible. In the Old Testament (the third book of Kings, ch. 3, v. 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, in a dream, another woman inadvertently strangled her son ("slept" him) and transferred the dead to her, and took her living son to her and now passes him off as her own. Another woman claimed the opposite: allegedly it was the one who accuses her who did it. And each of them claimed that the living child belonged 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 the woman whose son was alive answered the king, for all her inwardness was agitated with 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 to me, nor to you, cut it off. " So Solomon understood which of the two women was the true mother of the child, and gave him to the one who asked to keep him alive.
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 moralizing literature of the 16th-16th centuries.
Allegorically: the judgment 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 speedy judgment. / i> Goes back to the Bible. BMS 1998, 557 ...

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The primary source is the Bible (Old Testament, the Third Book of Kings, ch. 3, v. 16 28), which speaks of the judgment of Solomon. see Solomon's judgment. Allegorically: a wise and unexpected decision, which is usually interpreted literally as a compromise solution, no offense "no ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions

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The tenth son of the king of Israel, David, 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, the most intelligent among many of his children. "And the trumpets sounded, and all the people cried out, Let King Solomon live."

After his accession to the throne, 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 only one thing - to give him a reasonable, kind heart in order to justly judge and rule the numerous people of Israel. The Lord promised. And then in Jerusalem, before the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon said a prayer of thanks and made a great feast for many of his servants and subjects.

Solomon possessed a sound judgment, excellent memory, an extensive store of knowledge, and considerable patience. He listened carefully 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 responsibility that he assumed from the first days of his reign was judicial activity. He made a special vestibule with a throne near his palace, on which he sat. And people came to this porch, wishing to judge them. Solomon did not refuse anyone, and the fame of his righteous judgment quickly spread throughout Jerusalem.

There were two young women living 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 ran over her child, and he died. Out of despair, she took a living baby from a sleeping neighbor and put him on her bed, and she put her own dead one for 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 the neighbor of deception 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 up a living baby. They argued for a long time, accusing each other of various sins, but they never came to any conclusion. And on the advice of good people, they went to the young king Solomon to settle 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 do not kill him." And the second said: "Let it be neither me nor you, chop."

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

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

Having listened to the story of the pilgrims, Solomon invited them to appear the next day for a decision, and he himself began to figure out how to find the thief, forcing him to incriminate himself. When the strangers appeared at the judgment, Solomon addressed them with the following words:

I heard about you that you are enlightened people, wise and experienced in matters controversial, and I ask you to judge the matter with which one king turned to me.

In the country of this king, a young man and a girl grew up in the neighborhood. They fell in love with each other, and the young man said to the girl: "Swear to me that you will not become anybody's wife until I give my consent." The girl swore. After a while, she was betrothed to another person. After the wedding, when the young were left alone, the bride declared to the groom: "I cannot become your wife until I go to my first groom, to whom I swore, and I receive his consent to this."

Coming to the first groom, she said: "Take from me a large ransom in silver and gold and allow me to become the wife of the one with whom I was married." "Since you remained true to your oath," he replied, "I will not take any ransom. Go, you are free." And to the young husband, who was right there, he said: "Rejoice in your share of the world."

On the way back they were attacked by robbers. Among the robbers there was one old man who, not content with the plundered money and jewelry, demanded lovemaking from a young woman. “Let me,” she pleaded, addressing the robber, “to tell about one incident from my life.” And she told the story of her first matchmaking and what both her suitors had done. “Think,” she added in conclusion, “that young man who had every right to me, overcame his passion and did not touch me. me and my husband. "

After listening to her story, the robber raised his eyes to the sky and, deeply repented of what he - standing on the edge of the grave - intended to do, not only set the young couple free, but also returned all the money and jewelry taken from them to the last detail.

The king, - added Solomon, - in whose country this incident took place, asks me, which of those involved in this story deserves the highest praise?

And so, I ask you to help me judge this matter.
- Sovereign, - answered one of the pilgrims, - in my opinion, the highest praise deserves a bride who remains true to her oath.

The second said:
- The highest praise deserves a young husband who managed to resist temptation and did not touch her before the first groom freed her from her oath.

What's this! - exclaimed the third of the pilgrims. - Most of all I am surprised at the robber: just think - not only did he not touch the captive - the money, all the money that he already had in his hands, he gave back!

And King Solomon said:
- This last one speaks with such enthusiasm about money, which he has not even seen, but only heard about it; how was he able to deal with the money that ended up in his hands?

Now I will tell you how Solomon judged wisely and how he handled matters fairly. In Jerusalem, two women lived in the same house, even in the same room. The one and the other had a small baby. 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 breast, so that the child 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 and did not even breathe! I felt it, and it is cold. Then she realized that the child had died, that she had strangled him.

This woman sees that her neighbor is asleep. Wait, she thinks to herself, no one will ever know that I strangled the child. I'll replace it. " Slowly she crept up to the sleeping neighbor, carefully took the living child from her, and slipped her dead one to 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 the 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 your mothers love you? See how tenderly, how attentively a kind mother looks at her tiny child. She knows what her child's nose, lips, eyes are; she knows where the speck is; she seems to have counted every hair on the baby's head.

“Give me my baby! She screamed. - Why did you change the child? They 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 does not give the child to the real mother.

What to do? We decided to turn to the young king Solomon, let him judge to whom to give the child. They come to the king. They start talking. One says: “This woman that night accidentally strangled her child and, when I was asleep, took my child alive, and gave me her own, dead. Sovereign! Tell her to hand over my child. " “No,” says another, “she was the one who strangled her child, and now she wants me to give her my alive. Sovereign! Tell her to get behind me. I will not give her the child. " "My child is alive!" - says one. "No, not yours, but mine!" - another argues. “You strangled the child,” one says. "No you!" - another answers.

No matter how many women argued, it was impossible to achieve sense whose child was. You and I would never have solved this difficult matter. And Solomon decided. “Bring the sword here,” he said to the servant. A servant brought a large, sharp sword. "Take a living child," said Solomon, "cut it in half and give one and the other woman in half: let them not argue." Do not be afraid, children, do not be afraid! Will Solomon really allow the poor child to be hacked? No! 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 was alive. " And Solomon guessed right, he was not mistaken.

The woman who strangled her child and dragged away the stranger said: "Let the child chop up - neither me 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. “Sovereign,” she begged with tears, “it is better to give the child to this woman, just don’t kill him. Let him stay alive. " This is how Solomon learned, 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 the young king judged them, they began to respect him. The good rejoiced and loved the king, but the evil did not like him, and they were afraid of him.

Before understanding and defining the meaning and meaning of the expression "the judgment of Solomon", let us plunge into the most ancient history and turn to the Bible for help to find out who Solomon was and why he was so famous. And here it should be noted right away that the name Solomon (Shlomo) is translated from Hebrew as “peacemaker”.

Only one statement about Solomon and his judgment is dear and it sounds like this: “The main thing is wisdom, acquire wisdom and with all your possessions acquire reason. Appreciate her highly and she will exalt you. "

King Solomon

Solomon was the third Jewish king, whose period of reign dates from about 967-928 BC. He was also the son of Bathsheba. Even at birth, the prophet Nathan singled him out from all the sons of David, who later became the most intelligent and impassive ruler. It was he who built the First on. He had a talent for foresight and was very sensitive, therefore many legends and fairy tales are associated with his name.

Solomon's judgment has always been fair and wise. There is a legend that when God, having appeared to him in a dream, promised to fulfill his every desire, Solomon asked for a reasonable heart in order to correctly judge his people and be able to discern where is good and where is evil. Solomon became a peaceful king, for forty years of his reign there was not a single big war. He was an excellent diplomat, merchant and builder; under him, chariots, cavalry and merchant ships appeared in the Jewish army. He fortified and rebuilt his Jerusalem, which began to drown in luxury and wealth. King Solomon made silver equal to simple stones.

The price of disobedience

But, like any king, he also made mistakes, and therefore, after his death, his state collapsed. One of the reasons was the construction of temples and pagan idols by the king for his many wives, who were often from different races and religions. He even swore an oath to participate personally in some pagan cults.

In the oral Torah Midrash, it is described that when King Solomon married the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, the archangel Gabriel descended from heaven to earth and stuck his pole into the depths of the sea, on this place was subsequently built Rome, which would later conquer Jerusalem.

The biblical "Book of Kingdoms" says that at the end of his life God again appeared before Solomon and told him that he would tear away his kingdom from him, since he did not fulfill His covenants and statutes, but during his lifetime he would not do it because of his father David. After the death of Solomon, his once strong and powerful kingdom fell apart into two weak states of Israel and Judah, which began to fight among themselves.

Solomon's judgment: meaning

There is such a popular expression - "Solomon's judgment" or "Solomon's decision". It implies a quick, witty and at the same time unexpected solution, which helps to deftly get out of some difficult and very controversial situation. This phraseological unit "the judgment of Solomon" is used in the meaning of "quick and wise."

Examples of Wise Decisions of Solomon

One day Solomon began to judge two women who could not divide the baby among themselves. They lived in the same house, and almost at the same time they had a baby each. At night, one of the women slept her child, and he died. Then she took from another living child and transferred her dead to her. The next morning, a violent argument arose between the women. So they came to the judgment of Solomon. He, having listened to their story, ordered to cut the child in half and give the halves to the mothers. One of the women immediately decided: it would be better if no one got it. Another prayed not to kill the baby, and immediately allowed another woman to take the baby away, so long as he stayed alive. Having identified the real mother in her, King Solomon immediately ordered that the child be given to this woman.

Pharaoh's help

Once Solomon took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, when he was building the Holy of Holies - a temple to his Lord, and once decided to send an ambassador to his father-in-law with a request to help him. Pharaoh immediately sent six hundred people to help Solomon, who, according to the horoscope, fell out of death. Thus, he wanted to test the wisdom of the king of Israel. Solomon, seeing them from afar, ordered them to sew shrouds, and then assigned his ambassador to them and told his father-in-law that if he had nothing to bury his dead in, then here are their robes and let him bury them with him.

Solomon's trial of the three brothers

The dying father called his three sons to give his final orders regarding the inheritance. They came to him, and he told them that he had a treasure buried somewhere in the ground, there were three vessels standing on top of each other. Let the upper vessel go to the older one, the next one to the middle one, and the lower one to the younger one. When the father died, they dug up the treasure and saw that the first vessel was filled with gold, the second with bones, and the third with earth. The brothers, in horror, began to argue for the gold and could not share it. It was then that they decided to come to Solomon so that he would justly resolve them.

Solomon's court, as always, was very wise, he ordered the gold to be given to the elder brother, cattle and servants to the middle brother, and the vineyards, bread and fields to the younger. And he told them that their father was an intelligent person, since he divided everything between them so competently during his lifetime.