Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
This last paragraph of this chapter should, of right, have been the first of the next chapter, for it begins a new story, which is there continued and concluded. Here is, I. The siege which the king of Syria laid to Samaria and the great distress which the city was reduced to thereby.
Commenting on 2 Kings 6:24-33
And the king said unto her, what aileth thee?.... His passion subsiding, or pitying her as in distress, and supposing that there might be something particular and pressing in her case: and she answered: this woman said unto me; who was now with her, and to whom she pointed: give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow...
as the king was passing--to look at the defenses, or to give some necessary orders for manning the walls.