23. ‘If you still want to fight my master, the king of Assyria, I will make this agreement with you. I promise that I will give you 2000 horses if you can find enough men to ride them into battle.
24. But even then you couldn’t beat one of my master’s lowest ranking officers. So why do you still depend on Egypt’s chariots and horse soldiers?
25. ‘Now, do you think I came to this country to destroy it without the Lord’S help? No, the Lord said to me, “Go up against this country and destroy it!”’”
26. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the commander, “Please speak to us in Aramaic. We understand that language. Don’t speak to us in the language of Judah because the people on the wall will understand you.”
27. But the commander said, “My master sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you and your master. I must also speak to those people sitting there on the wall. When we surround your city, they will suffer too. Like you, they will become so hungry they will eat their own waste and drink their own urine!”
28. Then the commander, shouting loudly in Hebrew, gave this warning to them all: Hear this message from the great king, the king of Assyria!