1 Kings 3:22

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁶At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷One woman said, "Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. ¹⁸On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us. ¹⁹During the night this woman's son died because she rolled over on him. ²⁰So 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. ²¹The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne." ²²"No," said the other woman, "the living one is my son and the dead one is your son." But the first woman insisted, "No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine." So they argued before the king.²³Then the king replied, "This woman says, 'My son is alive and yours is dead,' but that woman says, 'No, your son is dead and mine is alive.'" ²⁴The king continued, "Bring me a sword." So they brought him a sword, ²⁵and the king declared, "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Nay: 1 Kings 3:23, 1 Kings 3:24

Cross-References

Genesis 1:26
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it."

Genesis 2:9
Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:5
"For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Genesis 3:7
And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:12
And the man answered, "The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Genesis 3:13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" "The serpent deceived me," she replied, "and I ate."

Psalms 22:26
The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever!

Proverbs 3:18
She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.

Jeremiah 22:23
O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the other woman said,.... The defendant:

nay, but the living [is] my son, and the dead [is] thy son; she denied what the other said, but offered nothing in proof of it:

and this said; she who was the plaintiff replied in the same language:

no: but the dead [is] thy son, and the living [is] my son; without being able to add anything in confirmation of what she had deposed:

thus they spake before the king; several times, over and over again, what is before expressed, having nothing to produce on either side in proof of their assertions; so that it was very difficult to determine to whom the living child belonged.