The Wisdom of Solomon

1 Kings 3
As it appears eventually that Solomon did some
foolish and some mistaken things, it becomes a
matter of interest to know wherein lay that wisdom
with which he is described as being supernaturally
endowed.
God giveth to him that hath. It was the previous
possession of wisdom that qualified him for more.
David distinctly recognized him as a wise man; and
his wisdom is evinced by nothing more, than his
choice of wisdom beyond all other blessings, when
the fruition of his wishes was in the vision at Gibeon
offered to him. What he asked was a wise and
understanding heart,wisdom to govern this great
people; and his choice was so much approved, that
benefits which he had refrained from asking
wealth, power, length of days, were thrown in
without his seeking. The terms of his request
indicate the nature of the wisdom he required. That
Divine wisdom in spiritual thingsthat heart religion,
which the Jews sometimes denoted by this name, is
not intended. With that he was not pre-eminently
gifted; not more gifted certainlyhardly so much
gifted, as his father David. The wisdom which he
craved was that of which he had already enough to
appreciate the value of its increasepractical
wisdom, sagacity, clearness of judgment and
intellect in the administration of justice and in the
conduct of public affairs, with an aptitude for the
acquisition and use of the higher branches of
philosophical knowledge, natural and moral, which
constituted the learning of his age. In the latter he
excelled the most famous men of his time. We are
told that in the course of his career he found a
sufficiency of learned leisure to compose three
thousand proverbs, and songs a thousand and five;
and that he spoke, or wrote, on all known species
of plants, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall, as well as in every
branch of zoologyof beasts, of fowls, of creeping
things, and of fishes. The loss of these works in
natural history is greatly to be deplored. We are not,
however, to suppose, that they were regular
scientific descriptions and accounts of the various
subjects, but such concise observations as we find
interspersed among the existing writings ascribed to
him, more frequently than in any other books in
Scripture. The Jews have a notion, that a
considerable portion of Solomons observations of
this kind are preserved in the works of Aristotle, to
whom, according to them, his great pupil, Alexander,
sent a copy of Solomons writings, which he met with
in the East.
Of his Songs we have a few interesting specimens
in one of the Psalmsin the wonderful Song of
Songs, which perhaps rightly bears his name;
besides which, the introductory chapters of the book
of Proverbs abound in poetry of the highest order. Of
his Proverbs also, we have many specimens left;
and these, with the book of Ecclesiastes (if rightly
ascribed to him), contain such lessons of practical
wisdom, and embody such profound observations
on mans life and nature, as would alone account for
the wide-spread reputation which this great king
acquired.
It was, however, a monarchs sagacity in the
administration of justice, which was calculated to
make the most marked impression upon the popular
mind, and likely to be most generally talked about
through the land. This quality also came more home
to the personal concerns of his subjects than any
other, and was for that reason alone the more
carefully regarded. The administration of justice was
in all ancient monarchies, as it is now in the East, a
most important part of the royal duties and functions;
and there is no quality more highly prized than that
keen discernment in the royal judge, which detects
the clue of real evidence amidst conflicting
testimony, or that ready tact which devises a test of
truth where the evidence affords not even the clue to
any grounds of decision. It was an instance of this
kind which supplied to the watchful people the first
evidence of the marvellous judicial sagacity with
which their king was endowed.
The story is well known. Two mothers, one of whom
had lost her son, contend for the possession of the
living child; and the king, having to decide which of
the two has the best claim to it, detects the real
mother by the emotion she evinces when he orders
the living child to be divided, and half given to each;
and by her readiness to abandon her claim rather
than see the child perish before her eyes. We are
not aware of anything in Hebrew history that more
strongly evinces the despotism which had by this
time crept into the kingdom, than the fact that the
woman really believed this outrageous mandate
would be executed. If a judge made such a
suggestion among us, he would be laughed to scorn
for so futile an experiment, which the most ignorant
woman in the land would know that he was utterly
unable to execute. The real terror of the mother, at a
judgment which she too well knew might be
executed, becomes, in this point of view, doubly
affecting.
At the present day in the East, the people are prone
to exalt the civil wisdom of their kings by nothing so
much as by their discernment and equity in
judgment. The reader of Eastern history or tale will
recollect numerous instances by which the king and
judges resort to the most ingenious devices for the
discovery of the truth, not demonstrable by direct
evidence. Some of these have a certain
resemblance to that of Solomon. The Hindus
reverently preserve the memory of some of their
kings who have rendered themselves famous by the
equity of their judgments. One of the most
celebrated of these was Mariadiramen, among other
instances of whose sagacity the following is
recorded
A rich man had married two wives; the first of whom,
although ugly, had a great advantage over the
second, in that she had brought her husband a son,
while the other was childless. But, as if to
compensate for her sterility, the second wife
possessed such charms of person and character,
that she reigned supremely in the heart of her
husband. Provoked at this preference, the first wife
concocted a plan of vengeance equally astounding
for its diabolical ingenuity and its savageness. She
lavished every external mark of maternal love and
tenderness upon the infant at her breast, and let the
neighborhood know that this child was now her only
comfort, the center of her hopes, in the absence of
that affection which her husband denied her. As
soon as she had convinced the world that her heart
was altogether wrapped up in her little son, she, one
night, when the husband was away from home,
twisted the childs neck, and laid the corpse beside
the second wife, who lay asleep in her bed. In the
morning, pretending to seek for her infant, she ran
into the chamber of her rival, and there finding the
child dead, she fell upon the ground, tore her hair,
and gave vent to the most frightful howls and
lamentations. This brought the neighbors together:
and the other wife was already condemned in their
eyes; for it was clear the child had been murdered,
and it could not cross their minds that any mother
and, least of all, a mother so fond as thisshould
thus destroy her own infant, whom she had held up
as the only comfort left to her in life. This, however,
was what the other urged in her defencedwelling
upon the enmity which the mother entertained
against her, and maintaining that no passion was so
cruel and relentless as jealousy.
The case was brought before Mariadiramen; and a
day was appointed for each woman to plead her
cause. They did so, with that natural eloquence
which passion usually inspires. The king, unable to
decide upon the statements before him, pronounced
this sentence: Let the woman who is innocent, and
who pretends that her rival is culpable, move
through this assembly in the posture which he would
show her. The posture he indicated was one from
which modesty would shrink. But the mother of the
child with much vehemence declared that, in order
to convince the assembly that her rival was guilty,
she would not only take this turn through the
assembly once, but a hundred times if required. The
other sorrowfully declined the test, declaring that,
although innocent, she would sooner submit to the
must cruel death than do what was then required of
her. The other was about to reply; but the voice of
the king stilled all other sound. He pronounced her
guilty, and her antagonist innocent. A woman, he
said, whom the certain prospect of death cannot
constrain to an unbecoming action, is incapable of
so great a crime; but a woman who, having lost all
sense of womanly reserve, hesitates not at an
immodest action, sufficiently declares herself to be
capable of the blackest crimes. Confounded to find
herself thus discovered, the mother of the child
vindicated the penetration of the royal judge, by
publicly acknowledging her crime.
The sagacity of Solomon was, however, more
marked than this; for the evidence in the case
brought before him was more equal, and the test
more intelligent and more appropriate to the
particular case. Solomons was altogether a most
wonderful decision; and its results were most
important to him; for it evinced, in the judgment of
the people, his fitness to fill worthily the high place to
which he had been raised. Of this some doubt and
misgiving appear to have been previously
entertained, on account of his agetoo young for
experience, yet too old for a regency. But now all
this was at an end. He had delivered a judgment
which the most ripened experience could not
surpass. They saw that the wisdom of God was with
him to do judgment; and thenceforth they regarded
him with the respect and veneration due to riper
years.