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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025
the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

1 Kings 3:20

She got up during the night, took my son from my side while I was asleep, and carried him to her bed; then she put the dead child in my bed.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Arbitration;   Judge;   Rulers;   Solomon;   Wisdom;   Scofield Reference Index - Bible Prayers;   Thompson Chain Reference - Solomon;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Courts of Justice;   Justice;   Magistrates;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Solomon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Book(s);   Court Systems;   Harlot;   King, Kingship;   Kings, 1 and 2;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Israel;   Priests and Levites;   Wisdom;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Boyhood ;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Law of Moses;   Sol'omon;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Hebrew Monarchy, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Decision;   Handmaid;   Midnight;   Proverbs, Book of;   Queen of Sheba;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ben Naphtali;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and she put her dead son in my arms.
Hebrew Names Version
She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
King James Version
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
English Standard Version
And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.
New Century Version
So she took my son from my bed during the night while I was asleep, and she carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby in my bed.
New English Translation
She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your servant was sleeping. She put him in her arms, and put her dead son in my arms.
Amplified Bible
"So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from [his place] beside me while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him on her bosom, and laid her dead son on my bosom.
New American Standard Bible
"So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And she rose at midnight, and tooke my sonne from my side, while thine handmaide slept, and layde him in her bosome, and layde her dead sonne in my bosome.
Legacy Standard Bible
So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
Contemporary English Version
Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me.
Complete Jewish Bible
So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from next to me, while your servant was sleeping, and put it in her arms; and she laid her dead child in my arms.
Darby Translation
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
Easy-to-Read Version
That night while I was asleep, she took my son from my bed and carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby in my bed.
George Lamsa Translation
And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
Lexham English Bible
So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap.
Literal Translation
And she rose up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me and laid it in her bosom; and your handmaid was asleep. And she laid her dead son in my bosom.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and she rose vp in the nighte, and toke my sonne fro my syde (where thy handmayde slepte,) and layed it in hir arme, and hir deed sonne layed she in myne arme.
American Standard Version
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
Bible in Basic English
And she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And she rose at midnight and toke my sonne from my syde while thyne handmayde slept, and layde it in her bosome, and put her dead childe in my bosome.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
King James Version (1611)
And shee arose at midnight, and tooke my sonne from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and layd it in her bosome, and layd her dead childe in my bosome.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and she arose in the middle of the night, and took my son from my arms, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
English Revised Version
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
Berean Standard Bible
So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and sche roos in the fourthe part of the nyyt in silence, and took my sone fro the side of me, thin handmaide slepynge, and settide in hir bosum; forsothe sche puttide in my bosum hir sone, that was deed.
Young's Literal Translation
and she riseth in the middle of the night, and taketh my son from beside me -- and thy handmaid is asleep -- and layeth it in her bosom, and her dead son she hath laid in my bosom;
Update Bible Version
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your slave slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
Webster's Bible Translation
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thy handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
World English Bible
She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
New King James Version
So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
New Living Translation
Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep. She laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her.
New Life Bible
So she got up in the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and her dead son in my arms.
New Revised Standard
She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then arose she, in the middle of the night, and took my son from beside me, while thy handmaid was sleeping, and laid it in her own besom, - but, her dead son, laid she in, my, bosom.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And rising in the dead time of the night, she took my child from my side, while I, thy handmaid, was asleep, and laid it in her bosom: and laid her dead child in my bosom.
Revised Standard Version
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your maidservant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.

Contextual Overview

16 One day two prostitutes came and presented themselves before King Solomon. 17 One of them said, "Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a baby boy at home while she was there. 18 Two days after my child was born, she also gave birth to a baby boy. Only the two of us were there in the house—no one else was present. 19 Then one night she accidentally rolled over on her baby and smothered it. 20 She got up during the night, took my son from my side while I was asleep, and carried him to her bed; then she put the dead child in my bed. 21 The next morning, when I woke up and was going to nurse my baby, I saw that it was dead. I looked at it more closely and saw that it was not my child." 22 But the other woman said, "No! The living child is mine, and the dead one is yours!" The first woman answered back, "No! The dead child is yours, and the living one is mine!" And so they argued before the king. 23 Then King Solomon said, "Each of you claims that the living child is hers and that the dead child belongs to the other one." 24 He sent for a sword, and when it was brought, 25 he said, "Cut the living child in two and give each woman half of it."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

midnight: Job 24:13-17, Psalms 139:11, Matthew 13:25, John 3:20

took: 1 Kings 3:21

Cross-References

Genesis 2:20
So the man named all the birds and all the animals; but not one of them was a suitable companion to help him.
Genesis 2:23
Then the man said, "At last, here is one of my own kind— Bone taken from my bone, and flesh from my flesh. ‘Woman' is her name because she was taken out of man."
Genesis 5:29
and said, "From the very ground on which the Lord put a curse, this child will bring us relief from all our hard work"; so he named him Noah.
Genesis 16:11
You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
Genesis 35:18
But she was dying, and as she breathed her last, she named her son Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.
Exodus 2:10
Later, when the child was old enough, she took him to the king's daughter, who adopted him as her own son. She said to herself, "I pulled him out of the water, and so I name him Moses."
1 Samuel 1:20
So it was that she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, and explained, "I asked the Lord for him."
Matthew 1:21
She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:23
"A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel" (which means, "God is with us").
Acts 17:26
From one human being he created all races of people and made them live throughout the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And she arose at midnight,.... Perceiving what she had done, that she had overlaid her child, and it was dead; either through fear of punishment inflicted on persons thus negligent, or because of the disgrace of it, taking no more care of her child, she made use of the following stratagem:

and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept; this served to puzzle the cause, for how could she know what she did when she was asleep? this she could not prove, it was only conjecture:

and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom; where she found it in the morning; but still what proof was there that it was the other woman's, and not her own, that lay dead in her bosom?


 
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