1 Kings 3:25 (DBY)

Passage

And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

Nearby Context

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.

1 Kings 3:26 Then spoke the woman whose was the living child to the king, for her bowels yearned over her son, and she said, Ah, my lord! give her the living child, and in no wise put it to death. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine; divide it.

1 Kings 3:27 And the king answered and said, Give this one the living child, and in no wise put it to death: she is its mother.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 24's "And the king said Bring me a..." into verse 26's "Then spoke the woman whose was the...", so "king" and "said" 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 "king" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.