18:17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser 1 from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, 2 along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went 3 and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. 4
18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 5 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 6 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. 7 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.” 8
1 sn For a discussion of these titles see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 229-30.
2 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
3 tn Heb “and they went up and came.”
4 tn Heb “the field of the washer.”
5 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
6 tn Or “Hebrew.”
7 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
8 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”
sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
9 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
10 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the
11 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”