Then three days after I had my baby, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one else in the house except the two of us.

(Now his father had never corrected him by saying, “Why do you do such things?” He was also very handsome and had been born right after Absalom.)

One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house.

I got up in the morning to nurse my son, and there he was, dead! But when I examined him carefully in the morning, I realized it was not my baby.”

The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.”

Tahpenes’ sister gave birth to his son, named Genubath. Tahpenes raised him in Pharaoh’s palace; Genubath grew up in Pharaoh’s palace among Pharaoh’s sons.

With the authority of the Lord he cried out against the altar, “O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says, ‘Look, a son named Josiah will be born to the Davidic dynasty. He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer sacrifices on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”

The real mother spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!”