1 Kings 3:19
During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him.
BSB
ASV
And this woman’s child died in the night, because she lay upon it.
KJV
And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
And this woman's child died in the night,.... Whether the same night following the day it was born is not certain; because she overlaid it; or laid upon it, being heavy through sleep, and not knowing what she did, turned herself upon it, and smothered it; because it had no previous illness, or any marks of any disease it could be thought to die of, and perhaps there might be some of its being overlaid.
The interpretation of Solomon's judgment on the quarrel of two harlot women (1 Kings 3) is clear as far as the simple history is concerned: that a boy of twelve years judged with an affection beyond his age for the depths of human nature. Hence, he was both admired and feared by all Israel, because he would not miss what was so skillfully concealed.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
