²⁵ I have not come to attack and destroy this place without an order from the Lord. The Lord himself told me to come to this country and destroy it.’”

²⁶ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to us in the Aramaic language. We understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew, because the people on the city wall can hear you.”

²⁷ “No,” the commander said, “my master did not send me to tell these things only to you and your king. He sent me to speak also to those people sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine like you.”