3 Kings 3:21
And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead: but considering him more diligently when it was clear day, I found that it was not mine which I bore.
Open 3 Kings 3:21 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque surrexissem mane ut darem lac filio meo, apparuit mortuus : quem diligentius intuens clara luce, deprehendi non esse meum quem genueram.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἀνέστην τὸ πρωὶ θηλάσαι τὸν υἱόν μου, καὶ ἐκεῖνος ἦν τεθνηκώς· καὶ ἰδοὺ κατενόησα αὐτὸν πρωί, καὶ ἰδοὺ οὐκ ἦν ὁ υἱός μου ὃν ἔτεκον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וָאָקֻ֥ם בַּבֹּ֛קֶר לְהֵינִ֥יק אֶת בְּנִ֖י וְהִנֵּה מֵ֑ת וָאֶתְבּוֹנֵ֤ן אֵלָיו֙ בַּבֹּ֔קֶר וְהִנֵּ֛ה לֹֽא הָיָ֥ה בְנִ֖י אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָלָֽדְתִּי
The Fathers on this verse
Origen A Letter from Origen to Africanus
“Then there appeared two women that were harlots before the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, To me, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and we were delivered in the house. And it came to pass, the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there is no one in our house except us two. And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from my arms. And thine handmaid slept. And she laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And I arose in the morning to give my child suck, and he was dead; but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay; the dead is thy son, but the living is my son. And the other said, No; the living is my son, but the dead is thy son. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Rufinus of Rome
Rufinus, a Roman Presbyter (to be carefully distinguished from Rufinus of Aquileia and Rufinus the Syrian), had written to Jerome for an explanation of the judgment of Solomon ( 1 Kings iii. 16-28 ). This Jerome gives at length, treating the narrative as a parable and making the false and true mothers types of the Synagogue and the Church. The date of the letter is 398 a.d.