Poole on 1 Kings 3:16-28: Two Harlots, but only One Living Child

Verse 16:[1]  Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and (Num. 27:2) stood before him.

[Two women, harlots[2] (thus the Syriac, the Septuagint in Grotius, Munster, Malvenda, Tigurinus, Pagnine)]  If they were such, contrary to the custom of other harlots they both bring forth children and love them (Vatablus).  To Josephus the ἑταῖροι τὸν βίον, companions for livelihood, were foreigners,[3] that is, not comprehended under the Law, Deuteronomy 23:17 (Grotius).  ‎זֹנוֹת, Innkeepers (Jonathan and the more learned in Vatablus, thus Junius and Tremellius, Piscator).  The term signifies both things:  see on Joshua 2:1.[4]  Their husbands were at that time perhaps away on business (Vatablus).  That they were not harlots is shown, 1.  by the fact that such are not wont to pass the night alone, nor to bear children; as it is said of these women (Sanchez):  But, that harlots do not conceive, is not true of all, but only of those that prostitute their bodies indiscriminately and to many (Menochius).  2.  David would not have suffered such at Jerusalem (Martyr):  3.  Neither would such have dared to pass before royal eyes (Sanchez).  Yet others maintain that they were harlots (thus Salian and Pineda, etc. in Lapide, Menochius); because there is no mention of husbands (Menochius, Lapide); and they were alone in the house (Menochius); and they plead their cases themselves.  For harlots are irascible, brazen, litigious (Lapide).  Openly they were acting as innkeepers, but secretly under the appearance of innkeeping as harlots; for it is not likely that they were public and notorious harlots (Junius, Piscator).

Harlots, or, victuallers; for the Hebrew word signifies both.  See on Joshua 2:1.  And possibly they might be both; this by their open profession, and the other by their secret practice:  not that they were common harlots; for neither would Solomon have tolerated such; nor durst such have presented themselves before so wise and just a ruler; nor did such use either to bring forth children, or to have such a tender care of and affection to them as these express.  Yet that they were unmarried persons, and so guilty of fornication, seems most probable, both because there is no mention of any husbands, whose office it was, if there were any such, to contest for their wives; and because they lived a solitary life in one house.

[They came to the king]  For the king was also judging, and there was between him and the Senate a right of precedence (Grotius).  There were inferior judges; but, 1.  this case was too difficult; 2.  perhaps the women had appealed to the highest tribunal.  God willed, that the new King might have a specimen of the gift received, and might share with others; so that his authority might be increased (Martyr, Vatablus).

Unto the king:  haply they had presented their cause to the inferior courts, who could not determine; and therefore now they bring it to the king, as the supreme magistrate, and famous for his wisdom.  Stood there before him, desiring and expecting his sentence in the case.

Verse 17:[5]  And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

[I beseech thee, O Lord]  That is to say, Give me aid (Vatablus).

Verse 18:[6]  And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also:  and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

[On the third day, etc.]  Therefore, they, being infants in age, were not able to be distinguished; it is also likely that they were boys (Martyr).

The third day; so they could not be distinguished by their age.

[No other with us]  Therefore, it was not able to be settled by witnesses, records, nor arguments (Martyr).

There was no stranger with us in the house; therefore no witness on either side; and although there might be some sensible difference to an exact observer between the features of the two children, yet it is not probable that was much minded by the neighbours; for though civil women might assist them both in their child-births, yet it is not likely they would afterwards converse much with them, as being persons of suspected fame, and the features of the children, especially for so few days, might easily be so like, that it was difficult to discern the one from the other.  And the testimonies of the women were of equal credit, that is, of none at all.

Verse 19:[7]  And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

[She overlaid him, ‎שָׁכְבָ֖ה עָלָֽיו׃]  She lay down (overlaid [Jonathan, Pagnine, thus the Arabic, Tigurinus, Junius and Tremellius], was sleeping [Vatablus]) over him (Montanus); that is, she, while sleeping, overlaid him (Vatablus).  She says this by conjecture; since no infirmity had preceded (Munster).  Perhaps the crime of infanticide, which she suspected to be framed against her by her rival, she wished to avert from herself, and cast upon the other; because perhaps there was a punishment, whether by law or custom, determined not only against those that willingly overlay their infants, but against those also that did so through carelessness, which we read afterwards decreed in Burchard[8] (Sanchez).

She overlaid it:  And so smothered it; which she justly conjectures, because there were evidences of that kind of death, but no appearance of any other cause thereof.

Verse 20:[9]  And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

[In the silence of the night]  Hebrew:  in the midst of the night.[10]  Night is suitable for thefts and misdeeds (Menochius).

She arose at midnight, when I was asleep, as she reasonably and truly concluded.

[She took my son]  Not out of love for offspring, but out of envy (Menochius).

[From my side (thus Junius and Tremellius), ‎מֵאֶצְלִי [11]] Verbatim:  from beside me (Vatablus); who was by me (Pagnine); from my proximity, that is, from that place that was near me (Piscator).

Took my son from beside me; either because she really desired the comfort of a child, to be educated by her, and owned as hers; or because she would not be thought guilty of the child’s death, for which she knew not how severely Solomon would punish her.  While thine handmaid slept; as she might well know, because had she been awake, she had discovered and prevented her design.

Verse 21:[12]  And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead:  but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

[To my son]  That is, whom I was thinking to be my son (Menochius).

[Considering more carefully, ‎וָאֶתְבּוֹנֵ֤ן אֵלָיו֙]  And if focused upon him (Montanus); I observed concerning him (Junius and Tremellius); I considered him (Pagnine, thus Munster, Tigurinus) (or I considered [Jonathan, Arabic]) diligently (Tigurinus, thus Vatablus).

Verse 22:[13]  And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son.  And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son.  Thus they spake before the king.

[They were contending]  Repeating the same words, which ought not to be burdensome and troublesome to judges.  What ought the King to do here?  He was not able to have recourse to the manners and lives of the one affirming and of the one denying; since they were equivalent, and both vile.  Nothing was able to be proven.  But why was the case not brought to interrogations and torture?  I would say that perhaps in that age this sort of examination was not in use; nor do we read of its use in the law of God.  Such testimonies are also dubious; since in them it is not the more honest that last, but the stronger and more obstinate.  Therefore, Solomon stoops to conjectures, which was necessary (Martyr).

Thus they spake:  Both peremptorily and vehemently affirmed the same thing, oft repeating the same words.

Verse 23:[14]  Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead:  and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

Verse 24:[15]  And the king said, Bring me a sword.  And they brought a sword before the king.

[Bring me a sword]  At first this judgment seemed puerile to the people, says Josephus, Antiquities 8:2 (Sanchez), as if he wanted to sever cases with the sword (Martyr).

Verse 25:[16]  And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

[Divide ye, etc.]  Let my attendants prepare themselves for a severing of this sort (Estius).

Divide, etc.:  He said this with seeming sincerity and earnestly, though with a design far above the reach of the two women or of the people present, who probably with admiration and horror expected the execution of it.

[Into two parts (thus most interpreters)]  ‎לִשְׁנָיִם, into two (Montanus), in two (Munster).

Verse 26:[17]  Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for (Gen. 43:30; Is. 49:15; Jer. 31:20; Hos. 11:8) her bowels yearned (Heb. were hot[18]) upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it.  But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

[Her bowels were moved (thus Pagnine, Munster, Vatablus), ‎נִכְמְר֣וּ רַחֲמֶיהָ֘ [19]]  Her compassions had grown heated (Montanus, Syriac); boiling (or heated [Mariana], roused [Syriac], whirling about, or rolling [Jonathan in Munster]; had grown heated with compassion [Tigurinus]) were her viscera (Junius and Tremellius); viscera synedochichally signifies the heart, which is wont to be kindled and set ablaze, as it were, with the affection of love and mercy (Piscator).  She was moved with compassion (Arabic, Vatablus).

[I beseech, ‎בִּי]  I ask; that is to say, Spare the child; for she passes over the rest in silence on account of sorrow:  which all are signs of a troubled spirit (Vatablus).

Verse 27:[20]  Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it:  she is the mother thereof.

[For this is the mother thereof]  Hence appears Solomon’s exceptional ἀγχίνοια/shrewdness (Grotius).  It belongs to great judgment to search out the inner thoughts of men, when no indications appear.  Thus Erasistratus discovered the disease of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, who was wasting away from love for his mother[21] (Sanchez).  Among the εἰκότα/probable signs στοργὴ/love/ affection is the most powerful in discovering the mother (Grotius, similarly Lapide, Serarius, Grotius out of Diodorus Siculus[22]).  Not dissimilar is that of Ariopharnes, king of the Thracians,[23] who, from among three men each of whom claimed to be the son of the king of the Cimmerians, held as his son the one who, when ordered to assail his father’s corpse with javelins, refused; with the two that had transfixed it rejected[24] (Lapide).  Likewise the case of Claudius,[25] who compelled a woman not acknowledging her son, with the trustworthiness of the arguments on both sides being dubious, to confession, by decreeing marriage to the young man; as Suetonius says[26] (Grotius); for, with that refused, which nature abhors, she acknowledged her son (Lapide).  These are the feints of which Plato wants a Magistrate to make use for the good of his subjects and in the place of medicinal remedy, The Republic 5 (Grotius).  He did indeed instill in the mother a true fear, but brief; and so that he might deliver her son from the perpetual danger of destruction (Lapide).  What he did to the other little woman is not related, because it was not to the purpose.  Yet it was a crime sufficiently grievous, namely, kidnapping (Martyr).

She is the mother thereof:  As is evident from her natural and motherly affection to the child, which she had rather have alienated and given away from her than destroyed.

Verse 28:[27]  And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king:  for they saw that the (1 Kings 3:9, 11, 12) wisdom of God was in him (Heb. in the midst of him[28]), to do judgment.

The wisdom of God; either great and eminent wisdom, as the cedars or mountains of God[29] are the highest and most eminent of the kind; or Divine wisdom with which God had inspired him for the better government of his people.  Was in him to do judgment; to assist him in wisely examining and justly determining the causes and controversies of his people.

[1] Hebrew:  ‎אָ֣ז תָּבֹ֗אנָה שְׁתַּ֛יִם נָשִׁ֥ים זֹנ֖וֹת אֶל־הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וַֽתַּעֲמֹ֖דְנָה לְפָנָֽיו׃

[2] Hebrew:  ‎שְׁתַּ֛יִם נָשִׁ֥ים זֹנ֖וֹת.

[3] See Antiquities 8:26-34.

[4] Joshua 2:1:  “And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho.  And they went, and came into an harlot’s house (‎בֵּית־אִשָּׁ֥ה זוֹנָ֛ה), named Rahab, and lodged there.”

[5] Hebrew:  ‎וַתֹּ֜אמֶר הָאִשָּׁ֤ה הָֽאַחַת֙ בִּ֣י אֲדֹנִ֔י אֲנִי֙ וְהָאִשָּׁ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את יֹשְׁבֹ֖ת בְּבַ֣יִת אֶחָ֑ד וָאֵלֵ֥ד עִמָּ֖הּ בַּבָּֽיִת׃

[6] Hebrew:  ‎וַיְהִ֞י בַּיּ֤וֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי֙ לְלִדְתִּ֔י וַתֵּ֖לֶד גַּם־הָאִשָּׁ֣ה הַזֹּ֑את וַאֲנַ֣חְנוּ יַחְדָּ֗ו אֵֽין־זָ֤ר אִתָּ֙נוּ֙ בַּבַּ֔יִת זוּלָתִ֥י שְׁתַּֽיִם־אֲנַ֖חְנוּ בַּבָּֽיִת׃

[7] Hebrew:  ‎וַיָּ֛מָת בֶּן־הָאִשָּׁ֥ה הַזֹּ֖את לָ֑יְלָה אֲשֶׁ֥ר שָׁכְבָ֖ה עָלָֽיו׃

[8] Decretum Burchardi 19.  Burchard of Worms (c. 950-1025) was a German Bishop, canon lawyer, and theologian.  He is remembered for compiling his Decretum (a systematic handbook of ecclesiastical law and moral theology in twenty books), which exerted tremendous influence until it was superseded in the twelfth century by Gratian’s Decretum.

[9] Hebrew: ‎וַתָּקָם֩ בְּת֙וֹךְ הַלַּ֜יְלָה וַתִּקַּ֧ח אֶת־בְּנִ֣י מֵֽאֶצְלִ֗י וַאֲמָֽתְךָ֙ יְשֵׁנָ֔ה וַתַּשְׁכִּיבֵ֖הוּ בְּחֵיקָ֑הּ וְאֶת־בְּנָ֥הּ הַמֵּ֖ת הִשְׁכִּ֥יבָה בְחֵיקִֽי׃

[10] Hebrew:  ‎בְּת֙וֹךְ הַלַּ֜יְלָה.

[11] אֵצֶל/conjunction/proximity is frequently used as a preposition, beside, in proximity to.

[12] Hebrew:  ‎וָאָקֻ֥ם בַּבֹּ֛קֶר לְהֵינִ֥יק אֶת־בְּנִ֖י וְהִנֵּה־מֵ֑ת וָאֶתְבּוֹנֵ֤ן אֵלָיו֙ בַּבֹּ֔קֶר וְהִנֵּ֛ה לֹֽא־הָיָ֥ה בְנִ֖י אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָלָֽדְתִּי׃

[13] Hebrew: ‎וַתֹּאמֶר֩ הָאִשָּׁ֙ה הָאַחֶ֜רֶת לֹ֣א כִ֗י בְּנִ֤י הַחַי֙ וּבְנֵ֣ךְ הַמֵּ֔ת וְזֹ֤את אֹמֶ֙רֶת֙ לֹ֣א כִ֔י בְּנֵ֥ךְ הַמֵּ֖ת וּבְנִ֣י הֶחָ֑י וַתְּדַבֵּ֖רְנָה לִפְנֵ֥י הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃

[14] Hebrew:  ‎וַיֹּ֣אמֶר הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ זֹ֣את אֹמֶ֔רֶת זֶה־בְּנִ֥י הַחַ֖י וּבְנֵ֣ךְ הַמֵּ֑ת וְזֹ֤את אֹמֶ֙רֶת֙ לֹ֣א כִ֔י בְּנֵ֥ךְ הַמֵּ֖ת וּבְנִ֥י הֶחָֽי׃ פ

[15] Hebrew:  ‎וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ קְח֣וּ לִי־חָ֑רֶב וַיָּבִ֥אוּ הַחֶ֖רֶב לִפְנֵ֥י הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃

[16] Hebrew:  ‎וַיֹּ֣אמֶר הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ גִּזְר֛וּ אֶת־הַיֶּ֥לֶד הַחַ֖י לִשְׁנָ֑יִם וּתְנ֤וּ אֶֽת־הַחֲצִי֙ לְאַחַ֔ת וְאֶֽת־הַחֲצִ֖י לְאֶחָֽת׃

[17] Hebrew: ‎וַתֹּ֣אמֶר הָאִשָּׁה֩ אֲשֶׁר־בְּנָ֙הּ הַחַ֜י אֶל־הַמֶּ֗לֶךְ כִּֽי־נִכְמְר֣וּ רַחֲמֶיהָ֘ עַל־בְּנָהּ֒ וַתֹּ֣אמֶר׀ בִּ֣י אֲדֹנִ֗י תְּנוּ־לָהּ֙ אֶת־הַיָּל֣וּד הַחַ֔י וְהָמֵ֖ת אַל־תְּמִיתֻ֑הוּ וְזֹ֣את אֹמֶ֗רֶת גַּם־לִ֥י גַם־לָ֛ךְ לֹ֥א יִהְיֶ֖ה גְּזֹֽרוּ׃

[18] Hebrew:  ‎נִכְמְרוּ.

[19] רֶחֶם signifies womb; רַחֲמִים (intensive plural), compassion.

[20] Hebrew:  ‎וַיַּ֙עַן הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר תְּנוּ־לָהּ֙ אֶת־הַיָּל֣וּד הַחַ֔י וְהָמֵ֖ת לֹ֣א תְמִיתֻ֑הוּ הִ֖יא אִמּֽוֹ׃

[21] Plutarch’s Parallel Lives “Life of Demetrius”.  Erasistratus (c. 304-c. 250 BC), an important and influential Greek physician, diagnosed Antiochus, the son of Seleucus Nicator (who reigned from 305 to 281 BC), with lovesickness for his stepmother, Stratonice, by observing symptoms such as pulse, flushing of the skin, etc.  Seleucus, to save his son, gave him Stratonice in marriage.

[22] Diodorus Siculus (c. 90-c. 30 BC), a Greek historian, wrote the massive Bibliotheca Historica in forty books.  Unhappily, only fifteen books have survived.

[23] Ariopharnes of Thrace appears to be a legendary or semi-legendary wise-king figure.

[24] Diodorus Siculus’ Historical Library 2.

[25] Claudius was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54 AD.

[26] The Twelve Cæsars “The Life of the Deified Claudius” 15:2.  Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 75- c. 130) was a Roman historian.

[27] Hebrew: ‎וַיִּשְׁמְע֣וּ כָל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֶת־הַמִּשְׁפָּט֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר שָׁפַ֣ט הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ וַיִּֽרְא֖וּ מִפְּנֵ֣י הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ כִּ֣י רָא֔וּ כִּֽי־חָכְמַ֧ת אֱלֹהִ֛ים בְּקִרְבּ֖וֹ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת מִשְׁפָּֽט׃ ס

[28] Hebrew:  ‎בְּקִרְבּוֹ.

[29] Psalm 80:10:  “The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars (‎אַרְזֵי־אֵל, the cedars of God).”  Psalm 36:6:  “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains (‎כְּהַרְרֵי־אֵל, like the mountains of God); thy judgments are a great deep:  O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.”