Key Verse Spotlight
1 Kings 3:21 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead; but when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore.” "
1 Kings 3:21
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
19 This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it.
20 She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me while your servant slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead; but when I had looked at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I bore.”
22 The other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” The first one said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” They argued like this before the king.
23 Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead one;’ and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”
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1 Kings 3:1
"Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into David’s city until he had finished building his own house, the LORD’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem."
1 Kings 3:2
"However, the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was not yet a house built for the LORD’s name."
1 Kings 3:3
"Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places."
1 Kings 3:4
"The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar."
1 Kings 3:5
"In Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”"
1 Kings 3:6
"Solomon said, “You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today."
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