Discovery Box2 Kings 18:17 
Context18:17 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
2 Kings 18:19
Context18:19 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? 5
2 Kings 18:26-28
Context18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 6 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 7 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. 8 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.” 9
18:28 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 10 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:37
Context18:37 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn 11 and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.
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 tn Heb “What is this object of trust in which you are trusting?”
6 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
7 tn Or “Hebrew.”
8 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
9 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.
10 tn The Hebrew text also has, “and he spoke and said.”
11 sn As a sign of grief and mourning.
