1 Kings 3:20

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.

1 Kings 3:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 3:20

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?

1 Kings 3:20 In-Context

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.