36:11 Eliakim, 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.” 36:12 But the chief adviser said, “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
1 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Assyrian empire.
2 tn Or “in Hebrew” (NIV, NCV, NLT); NAB, NASB “in Judean.”
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.”