Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, 'Please speak to us in the Aramaic language, because we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people on the wall can hear you.'
The Jewish officials are asking the Assyrian commander to speak in a different language so their own people won't understand the threatening conversation.
📚 Historical Context
This verse is set during the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC, under King Hezekiah of Judah, as the Assyrian empire sought to conquer the region. The Assyrian official Rabshakeh was publicly mocking the Judeans in Hebrew to intimidate the people on the city walls and undermine their morale. The Judean officials, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, requested that he switch to Aramaic, a language used in diplomacy and understood only by the elite, to avoid alarming the common people and escalating panic.
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