25 Am I now come up without the [a]Lord to this place, to destroy it? the Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah said unto Rabshakeh, Speak I pray thee, to thy servants in the [b]Aramites’ language, for we understand it, and talk not with us in the Jews’ tongue, in the audience of the people that are on the wall.

27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words, and not to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink [c]their own piss with you?

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 18:25 The wicked always in their prosperity flatter themselves, that God doth favor them. Thus he speaketh to fear Hezekiah that by resisting him he should resist God.
  2. 2 Kings 18:26 Or, Syrians.
  3. 2 Kings 18:27 Hebrew, the water of their feet.

25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord?(A) The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”

26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,(B) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

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