1 Kings 3:23 (DBY)

Passage

Then said the king, The one says, This that is living is my son, and thy son is the dead; and the other says, No, for thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

Nearby Context

1 Kings 3:21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead; and I considered it in the morning, and behold, it was not my son, whom I bore.

1 Kings 3:22 And the other woman said, No, for the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this one said, No, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king.

1 Kings 3:23 Then said the king, The one says, This that is living is my son, and thy son is the dead; and the other says, No, for thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

1 Kings 3:24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

1 Kings 3:25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "said", "king", "says", "living", "dead", and "other". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "said" and "king", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "And the other woman said No for..." into verse 24's "And the king said Bring me a...", so "said" and "king" belong inside that flow. In 1 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

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