1 Kings 3:22 (LSB)

Passage

Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

Nearby Context

1 Kings 3:20 So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.

1 Kings 3:21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”

1 Kings 3:22 Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

1 Kings 3:23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”

1 Kings 3:24 And the king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "other", "woman", "said", "living", "dead", and "first". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "other" and "woman", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 21's "When I rose in the morning to..." into verse 23's "Then the king said The one says...", so "other" and "woman" belong inside that flow. In 1 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "other" and "woman" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.