so his servants suggested to him, "Let's look for a young virgin woman to take care of you, your majesty. She will be of use to you if you have her lie down near you so that your majesty may keep warm."

So they conducted a search throughout the territory of Israel for a beautiful young woman, and Abishag the Shunammite was located and brought to the king.

The young woman was absolutely beautiful. She served the king and was very useful to him. The king was not sexually involved with her.

"Amen!" replied Jehoiada's son Benaiah to the king. "May the LORD God of your majesty make this happen!

One woman said, "Your majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

Three days later, this woman also gave birth. We lived alone there. There was nobody else with us in the house. It was just the two of us.

This woman's son died overnight because she laid on top of him.

"Not so," claimed the other woman. "The living child is my son, and the dead one is yours." But the first woman said, "Not so! The dead child is your son and the living one is my son." This is what they testified before the king.

The woman whose child was still alive cried out to the king, because her heart yearned for her son. "Oh no, your majesty!" she said. "Give her the living child. Please don't kill him." But the other woman said, "Cut him in half! That way, he'll belong to neither one of us."

The king announced his decision: "Give the living child to the first woman. Don't kill him. She is his mother."

But King Solomon married many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh: women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidonia, along with Hittite women, too,

Sometime later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. In fact, his illness became so severe that he died.

The woman responded to Elijah, "Now at last I've really learned that you are a man of God and that what you have to say about the LORD is the truth."

Then the king of Israel ordered, "Take Micaiah and place him in the custody of Amon, the city governor. Hand him over to Joash, the king's son.