16 Sometime later, two prostitutes came and stood before the king.
17 One of them said, "Please, Your Majesty, listen: This woman and I have been living in the same house. I gave birth while she was there.
18 This woman gave birth three days after I did. We stayed together. Apart from the two of us, there was no one else in the house.
19 This woman’s son died one night when she rolled over him.
20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him on her chest and laid her dead son on mine.
21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked more closely in the daylight, it turned out that it wasn’t my son—not the baby I had birthed."
22 The other woman said, "No! My son is alive! Your son is the dead one."But the first woman objected, "No! Your son is dead! My son is alive!" In this way they argued back and forth in front of the king.