1 Kings 3:20

20 So she got up during the night and took my son, who was beside me, while I was asleep. She held him in her arms. Then she laid her dead son in my arms.

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 later this woman also gave birth [to a son]. We were alone. No one else was with us. Just the two of us were in the house.

19 That night this woman's son died because she rolled over on top of him.

20 So she got up during the night and took my son, who was beside me, while I was asleep. She held him in her arms. Then she laid her dead son in my arms.

21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, he was dead! I took a good look at him and realized that he wasn't my son at all!"

22 The other woman said, "No! My son is alive--your son is dead." The first woman kept on saying, "No! Your son is dead--my son is alive." So they argued in front of the king.