"She arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your handmaid slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.'" — The first woman's crucial allegation: *va-taqum ba-laylah va-tikach et-bni me-etzli ve-anah yasha'na va-tashkivehu el-cheqah, ve-et-benah ha-met shakhvah el-cheqi* (she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while I slept, laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom). The *night action*, the *sleeping state*, the *exchange of infants*—this is the crux of the dispute. The first woman awakens to find a dead child beside her; she claims it is not hers.

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