1 Kings 3:23
Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.
The saying belongs to Solomon's early-reign judgment in which a helpless babe was restored to its unfortunate mother. In that judgment he showed wisdom and kindly sympathy. That wisdom and sympathy revealed his allegiance to God, his mastery of himself, and his moral efficiency. They revealed also his fine sensibilities and an unseared conscience.
That wisdom and sympathy were afterward lost when through communication with idolaters he separated from God. In separating he cast off his allegiance and lost his self-mastery. He fell so low as to consent to the erection of an idol to whom living children were offered as sacrifices, and to countenance licentious rites.