18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 1 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 2 in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 18:27 But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. 3 His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” 4
18:28 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 5 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
36:13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 6 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
1 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
2 tn Or “Hebrew.”
3 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
4 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
5 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”
6 tn The Hebrew text includes “and he said.”