10. “Have I come to destroy this country without the Lord on my side? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this country, and destroy it.’ ”
11. Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening.”
12. But the field commander asked, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”
13. Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria.
14. This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He can’t rescue you.
15. Don’t let Hezekiah get you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.’
16. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern.
17. Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It’s a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards.
18. Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria?