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.”
37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 3
‘With my many chariots I climbed up
the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions, 4
its thickest woods.
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 The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
4 tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”