1 Kings 3:21

21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, here was this dead baby! But when I looked at him in the morning light, I saw immediately that he wasn't my baby."

1 Kings 3:21 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 3:21

And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck
As she used to do: behold, it was dead;
her own child, as she thought at first: but when I had considered it in the morning;
it was towards morning, or just at break of day, when she arose to suckle it, and found it dead: but when it was broad day, and the light of the morning was increased, she more narrowly viewed it, and by its features, or some marks she had observed; behold, it was not my son which I did bear:
she was fully satisfied it was not her own child, but another.

1 Kings 3:21 In-Context

19 The infant son of this woman died one night when she rolled over on him in her sleep.

20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son - I was sound asleep, mind you! - and put him at her breast and put her dead son at my breast.

21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, here was this dead baby! But when I looked at him in the morning light, I saw immediately that he wasn't my baby."

22 "Not so!" said the other woman. "The living one's mine; the dead one's yours." The first woman countered, "No! Your son's the dead one; mine's the living one." They went back and forth this way in front of the king.

23 The king said, "What are we to do? This woman says, 'The living son is mine and the dead one is yours,' and this woman says, 'No, the dead one's yours and the living one's mine.'"