1 Kings 3:27 (DBY)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

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.

1 Kings 3:28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 26's "Then spoke the woman whose was the..." into verse 28's "And all Israel heard of the judgment...", so "king" and "answered" 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 "answered" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.