2 Kings 6:26 (DRB)

Passage

And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, my lord, O king.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 6:24 And it came to pass, after these things, that Benadad, king of Syria, gathered together all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.

2 Kings 6:25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and so long did the siege continue, till the head of an ass was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cabe of pigeons' dung, for five pieces of silver.

2 Kings 6:26 And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, my lord, O king.

2 Kings 6:27 And he said: If the Lord doth not save thee, how can I save thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? And the king said to her: What aileth thee? And she answered:

2 Kings 6:28 This woman said to me: Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "king", "israel", "passing", "wall", "certain", "woman", "cried", 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 doth...", 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.