Passage
The king said to her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
2 Kings 6:28 (WEB)
Nearby Context
2 Kings 6:26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
2 Kings 6:27 He said, “If Yahweh doesn’t help you, where could I get help for you? From of the threshing floor, or from the wine press?”
2 Kings 6:28 The king said to her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “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;’ and she has hidden her son.”
2 Kings 6:30 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 underneath on his body.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "king", "said", "problem", "answered", "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 doesn t help..." 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.