2 Kings 6:28 (YLT)

Passage

And the king saith to her, `What--to thee?' and she saith, `This woman said unto me, Give thy son, and we eat him to-day, and my son we eat to-morrow;

Nearby Context

2 Kings 6:26 And it cometh to pass, the king of Israel is passing by on the wall, and a woman hath cried unto him, saying, `Save, my lord, O king.'

2 Kings 6:27 And he saith, `Jehovah doth not save thee--whence do I save thee? out of the threshing-floor, or out of the wine-vat?'

2 Kings 6:28 And the king saith to her, `What--to thee?' and she saith, `This woman said unto me, Give thy son, and we eat him to-day, and my son we eat to-morrow;

2 Kings 6:29 and we boil my son and eat him, and I say unto her on the next day, Give thy son, and we eat him; and she hideth her son.'

2 Kings 6:30 And it cometh to pass, at the king's hearing the words of the woman, that he rendeth his garments, and he is passing by on the wall, and the people see, and lo, the sackcloth <FI>is<Fi> on his flesh within.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "king", "saith", "what--to", "thee", "woman", "said", and "give". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "king" and "saith", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 27's "And he saith Jehovah doth not save..." into verse 29's "and we boil my son and eat...", so "king" and "saith" 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 "saith" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.