Passage
The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.”
1 Kings 3:25 (WEB)
Nearby Context
1 Kings 3:23 Then the king said, “One says, ‘This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead;’ and the other says, ‘No; but your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”
1 Kings 3:24 The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.
1 Kings 3:25 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 the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill him!” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him.”
1 Kings 3:27 Then the king answered, “Give her the living child, and definitely do not kill him. She is his mother.”
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "king", "said", "divide", "living", "child", "give", and "half". 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 24's "The king said Get me a sword..." into verse 26's "Then the woman whose the living child...", 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.