Are You My Mother?
Why Are Mothers Important to the Family?
Members of a Special Community (.)
The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.
18 “It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.
Observant of their Surroundings ()
Observant of their Surroundings ()
“This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.
20 “So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.
21 “When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”
The Hebrew phrase used here can be translated “I discerned him” or “I was attentive to him.”
Motivated by Love ()
Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for ashe was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”
The king quickly produces his own evidence. He decides to try the case based on the women’s maternal instincts and human compassion.
The real mother, who has already cared enough for her child to plead her case before the king, acts out of “compassion for her son.”
The phrase nikmeru rachameyha al-benah (meaning “her womb grew warm over her son”) comes from two terms: kamar, which means “grow warm, tender,” and rechem, which means “womb” or “compassion.” The phrase may mean the woman has compassion for her son.