3 Kings 3:23
Then said the king: The one saith, My child is alive, and thy child is dead. And the other answereth: Nay, but thy child is dead, and mine liveth.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Tunc rex ait : Hæc dicit : Filius meus vivit, et filius tuus mortuus est : et ista respondit : Non, sed filius tuus mortuus est, meus autem vivit.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς αὐταῖς Σὺ λέγεις Οὗτος ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ζῶν, καὶ ὁ υἱὸς ταύτης ὁ τεθνηκώς· καὶ σὺ λέγεις Οὐχί, ἀλλὰ ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ζῶν, καὶ ὁ υἱός σου ὁ τεθνηκώς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֣אמֶר הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ זֹ֣את אֹמֶ֔רֶת זֶה בְּנִ֥י הַחַ֖י וּבְנֵ֣ךְ הַמֵּ֑ת וְזֹ֤את אֹמֶ֨רֶת֙ לֹ֣א כִ֔י בְּנֵ֥ךְ הַמֵּ֖ת וּבְנִ֥י הֶחָֽי
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.