1 Kings 3:23 (LSB)

Passage

Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”

Nearby Context

1 Kings 3:21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”

1 Kings 3:22 Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

1 Kings 3:23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”

1 Kings 3:24 And the king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.

1 Kings 3:25 Then 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 "king", "said", "says", "living", "dead", and "other". 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 22's "Then the other woman said No For..." into verse 24's "And the king said Get me a...", 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.