David, the great king of Israel, was old. Before he died, he called his son Solomon and said to him:

So Solomon became king of Israel. He was still young, but God had special plans for him.

One night, at Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said:

"Ask what you wish, and I will give it to you."

God was offering Solomon anything he wanted. He could have asked for riches, a long life, victory over his enemies. But Solomon answered with humility:

Solomon did not ask for riches or power. He asked for wisdom to govern God's people well, and this answer pleased the Lord, who said to him:

"Because you have asked this, and have not asked for long life, or riches, or the death of your enemies, but for understanding to discern what is just, I will do as you have said. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has been no one like you before, nor will there be after. And I also give you what you did not ask for: riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal in all your days."

Soon Solomon's wisdom would be put to the test. Two women came to him with a difficult problem. They lived in the same house and had given birth three days apart. During the night, one of them, in her sleep, had rolled onto her baby, and he died.

The first woman told the king:

"My lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and our sons were born a few days apart. During the night her son died, because she lay on him. So she got up at midnight, took my son from my side while I was sleeping, and laid him beside her, and laid her dead son in my arms. When I got up to nurse him, he was dead. But when I looked closely in the morning, I saw that he was not my son."

The other woman protested:

"No. The living one is my son, and the dead one is yours."

And so they argued before the king. There were no witnesses, there was no proof. How could Solomon discover the truth?

The king slowly repeated what each woman claimed. Then he gave an order:

"Bring me a sword."

A sword was brought before the king, and Solomon said:

"Divide the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other."

The people caught their breath. But Solomon knew what he was doing: he was testing the hearts of the two women. The mother of the living boy felt her heart twist with anguish for her son, and she cried out:

"Oh, my lord, give her the living child — only do not kill him!"

The other said:

"He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him."

Then the king answered:

The true mother would rather lose her son than see him die. All Israel heard of the king's judgment and felt deep respect for him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

Solomon ruled Israel in a time of peace, and the kingdom became rich and strong. But he carried a great dream: to build a temple for the Lord. David, his father, had wanted to build it, but God had said it would not be him — it would be his son. In the fourth year of his reign, Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah.

It was a magnificent building. The temple was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high. The stones arrived already cut to size, so that during the work no hammer, axe, or any iron tool was heard.

Inside, everything was lined with cedar and cypress and covered with pure gold. The Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant would rest, was entirely overlaid with gold. Solomon had two cherubim made of olive wood, each about fifteen feet tall, covered with gold; they stood in the Holy of Holies with their wings spread over the Ark.

The work took seven years, with thousands of workers, the finest timber from Lebanon, and great quantities of gold and bronze. It was the most splendid building Israel had ever seen.

When the temple was finished, Solomon gathered in Jerusalem all the elders of Israel and the heads of the tribes to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. The priests carried the Ark to its place in the Holy of Holies, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

When the priests came out, a cloud filled the temple of the Lord, and they could not stay to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the whole house. The presence of God was there — the same God who had led Israel through the desert in a pillar of cloud now filled his temple.

Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, and prayed:

It was a long and beautiful prayer. Solomon asked God to hear every prayer offered in that temple — prayers for forgiveness, prayers in time of war, and even the prayers of strangers who would come from far away to know the God of Israel. When he finished, he rose from before the altar, where he had knelt with his hands stretched toward heaven, and blessed the whole assembly.

Afterward, Solomon and all Israel offered sacrifices to the Lord, in numbers so great that no one could easily count them: thousands of oxen and sheep. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and then Solomon sent the people home. They blessed the king and returned to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the good the Lord had done.

Solomon's fame spread through all the nations, and kings from every land came to hear his wisdom. The queen of Sheba traveled from far away just to meet him, and she was amazed at what she saw. Israel had never been so glorious: the king's wisdom, the peace of the kingdom, the splendid temple — everything showed God's blessings on his people. And it had all begun with a young king who, able to ask for anything, asked for a wise heart.