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1 Kings 3:20

Verse 20 of 28. The 3rd of 22 chapters in 1 Kings, in History.

16Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.

17The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house.

18The third day after I delivered, this woman delivered also. We were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house.

19This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it.

20She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me while your servant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead; but when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore.”

22The other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” The first one said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” They argued like this before the king.

23Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead one;’ and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”

24The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.

Read 1 Kings 3

World English Bible. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.