2 Kings 6:26 (KJV)

Passage

And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 6:24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

2 Kings 6:25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

2 Kings 6:26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

2 Kings 6:27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

2 Kings 6:28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "king", "israel", "passing", "upon", "wall", "cried", "woman", and "saying". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "king" and "israel", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 25's "And there was a great famine in..." into verse 27's "And he said If the LORD do...", so "king" and "israel" belong inside that flow. In 2 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "king" and "israel" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.