Public Threats Seek to Break Jerusalem's Resistance

Officials ask for Aramaic, and the commander switches to Judean for the wall

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. But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

The request is to keep panic from the defenders. The answer is loud vernacular plus siege-starvation obscenity. Imperial speech aims at the people, not at diplomatic courtesy. The unit is not a model of how to threaten civilians.

A counterfeit land, an insult to the LORD, and a commanded silence

Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arphad? where is the god of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

Then came Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah to Hezekiah with clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not. Vine and fig in Assyria are a counterfeit of promised life, followed by deportation. Other gods' failures are stacked against the LORD. Silence is obedience, not agreement. Do not map these nations onto living peoples, and do not treat the threat as an ethical model.