Yesaya 36:11-12

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 

[36:11]  ¹ sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Assyrian empire.

[36:11]  ² tn Or “in Hebrew” (NIV, NCV, NLT); NAB, NASB “in Judean.”

[36:12]  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.

[36:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

[36:12]  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.