2 Kings 6:28 (LSB)

Passage

And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’

Nearby Context

2 Kings 6:26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Save, my lord, O king!”

2 Kings 6:27 He said, “If Yahweh does not save you, from where shall I save you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?”

2 Kings 6:28 And the king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” And she said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’

2 Kings 6:29 So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”

2 Kings 6:30 Now it happened that when the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "king", "said", "matter", "woman", "give", and "today". 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 "He said If Yahweh does not save..." into verse 29's "So 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.