Ver. 16.-Then ea.me there two women instance on the spur of the moment, in order tha.t were ha.riots [The Jewish writ.era here, to a.void the reproe.ch of he.ving killed her as in the case of Ra.h&b (Josh. ii. 1), offspring by her clumsiness and negleot, she would understand "hostess," "inn-keeper" found it di.flicult to draw back from her (~n•j)'1J1El, not Jj)1)1El, e.s Bahr, which= fe.lse position-which indeed she could not ,ra,,ookcio,,, " inn "). In support of which do without owning herself both child-stealer it is alleged tho.t prostitutes never have and liar-and so she put on a bold face e.nd children, or if they have are not solicitous maintained the imposture even before the about them. The meaning" hostess," how- monarch himself. That she did not really ever (as if from j~l, to feed), is not to be en- care for the child is evident from ver. 26.J t.ertained for a moment, but we m&y readily Thus they spake [Heb. "And they spake," admit th&t these children, though born out i.e., e.:flim1ed e.nd contra.dieted] before the of wedlock, were not necessarily the off- k!.Dg. spring of professed harlots, though the fact Ver. 23.-Then [promptly, without hesi- that their mothers dwelt together and alone te.tion J saJd the k!.Dg, The one sa.ith [Heb. (ver. 17) is certainly suspicious ; and see " this is saying," i.e., keeps saying] This is my son that liveth, a.nd thy son is the dead; Gesen. s. v. i1;it. Grotius, from Dent. xxiii. and the other saJth, Nay, but thy son is 17, concludes that they must have been the dead a.nd my BOil is the living. foreigners. But it is equally probable that Ver. 24.-And the king said, Bring me a the law was constantly violated] unto the sword. And they brought a [Heh. the; kiDg [as supreme judge] a.nd stood before the sword, i.e., of the executioner, or the him. sword for which he e.sked] sword before the Ver. 17.-And the one woman said, O my king. lord, I a.nd this woman dwell in one house ; Ver. 25.-And the king ea.id, Divide the a.nd I wa.s delivered of a child with her in living cb.il.i. in two, a.nd give half to the the house. one and half to the other [Heh. one] . Ver. 18.-And it ea.me to pass the third Ver. 26.-Then spake the woman whose day after that I was delivered, that this the living child was unto the ld!J.g, for her wom.a.n was delivered also : a.nd we were bowels [thought by most of the ancients to together; there was no strallger with us be the seat of the e.ffections, probe.bly be- in the house, save we two in the house. cause of the sensations which strong [Emphasis is laid on this fact, as showing emotions excite there. Cf. Ta o-1r>..a_rxva the possibility of the fraud and the im- in the New Testament (2 Cor. vi. 12; Phil. possibility of producing proof. Hebrew ii. 1; Philem. 7, 20, &c.] yearned [Heh. women have always required but little glowed. We speak of "glowing with pity," assistance in child-bearing. That which is &c. J upon her son, and she said, O my written in Exodus i. 19 is true to this day. lord, give her the living clllld, and in no Ver. 19.-And this wom.a.n's child died in wise slay it. But the other [Heb. this1 the night ; because she overlaid it. said [Heb. saying] Let it be neither mine Ver. 20.-And she arose at midnight nor thine, but divide it. [The Hebrew is [rather, in the middle, i.e., dead of the strikingly concise, "d-ivide." We he.ve night. The sleeper could not know it was here by far the greatest difficulty in the midnight], and took my son from beside me, story. When the pretender, who he.s while thine handmaid slept, and la.id it in cle.moured for the child, is e.t last offered it her bosom, a.nd laid her dead child in my by its mother, she refuses the gift e.nd bosom. heartlessly urges that it shall be cut in two. Ver. 21.-And when I rose in the morning We can only account for her strange con- [while it was still dusk] to give my child duct on the supposition that she caught suck, behold it was dead : but when I had eagerly at e.ny way of esce.pe from the considered it in the morning [i.e., in broad dilemma. in which she he.d ple.ced herself, daylight; Vulg. clara luce] behold [this and thought, no doubt, that to accept his second "behold" marks a second discovery] decision would be to flatter e.nd plee.se the it wu not my son which I did bear. king. (See Homiletics.) Ver. 22.-And the other woman ea.id, Ver. 27.-Then the king answered and Nay, but the living is my son a.nd the dead said [He simply echoes the exact words of is thy son. And this said, No, but the the mother. This is clee.r from the fa.et dead is thy son and the living is my son. the.t the word ,~,:=natua, "the one born," [It is somewhat difficult to account for the pertinacious claim to the child, preferred here e.nd in ver. 26 rendered "child," is a even before the king by the pretended very nnnsne.l oneJ, Give her the living child, mother. The most probe.ble explane.tion is, and in no wtae sle.y it [The LXX., which that having taken the child in the first ree.d!! " Give the child to her who said, Give CB. III. 16-28.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 68
it to her," &c., obscures the evidently cle- gave (ver.12] was In him [Heb. within him] signed repetition] she is the mother thereof to do Judgment.. [Most of the commentators EHeb. she, his mother]. cite from Grotius, the familiar story found in - Ver. 28.-And all Israel heard of the Diodorus Bicnlus, of Ariophe.rnes, king of Judgment which the king had Judged, and Thrace. Three youths claimed before this they feared the king [i.e., were impressed king each to be the son, and therefore and awed by his almost supernatural pene- successor, of a deceased king of the Cim- tration. Biihr refers to Luke iv. 36 ; viii. merians. He decided that that one was the 25], for they saw that the wtadom of God real son who refused to cast e. javelin at his [for which he asked (ver. 9) and which God father's corpse.)