11. Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear.”
12. But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”
13. Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria!
14. This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you.
15. Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the lord by saying, ‘The lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
16. “Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well.
17. Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.
18. “Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?