²⁶ Then ^(A)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and ^(B)Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in ^(C)Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

The Letter to King Artaxerxes

⁷ In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and ^(A)Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written ^(B)in Aramaic and translated.^[a]

⁴ Then ^(A)the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic,^{[a] (B)}“O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants ^(A)in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹² But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹⁸ And when they called for the king, there came out to them ^(A)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^(B)Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.