2 Kings 6:28 (DBY)

Passage

And the king said to her, What aileth thee? And she said, This woman said to me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 6:26 And it came to pass as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman to him saying, Help, my lord O king!

2 Kings 6:27 And he said, If Jehovah do not help thee, whence should I help thee? Out of the threshing-floor, or out of the winepress?

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

2 Kings 6:29 And we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him; and she has hidden her son.

2 Kings 6:30 And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his garments; and he was passing by upon the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "king", "said", "aileth", "thee", "woman", and "give". 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 27's "And he said If Jehovah do not..." into verse 29's "And we boiled my son and ate...", so "king" and "said" 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 "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.