Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole 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?

Geneva Study Bible

(l) She stole the living child to avoid both the shame and punishment.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Kings 3:20 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.

Ver. 20. While thine handmaid slept.] But how could she certainly tell what was done when she was asleep? The proofs in this cause alleged were so weak and unsatisfactory, that it was thought the wit of man could not determine it. But "a divine sentence was in the mouth of the king: his lips transgressed not in judgment." [Proverbs 16:10]

And laid her dead child in my bosom.] This was Qυχρον παραγκαλισμα, a cold bosomful, as one calleth a bad wife. And another complaineth of some in these days, that, harlot-like, they take their dead and putrid fancies, and lay them in the bosom of the Scripture, as of a mother, while they go about to give unto it, and not to receive from it the sense; wresting it to their own destruction.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

She arose at midnight, when I was asleep, as she reasonably and truly concluded.

Took my son from beside me; either because she really desired the comfort of a child, to be educated by her, and owned as hers; or because she would not be thought guilty of the child’s death, for which she knew not how severely Solomon would punish her.

While thine handmaid slept; as she might well know, because had she been awake, she had discovered and prevented her design.

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

“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 child in my bosom.”

So the woman whose child had died arose at midnight and took the first woman’s baby son, replacing it with her own dead son.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

midnight

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

took