¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah^(A) said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(B) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

⁷ And in the days of Artaxerxes^(A) king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic^(B) language.^[a][b]

⁴ Then the astrologers answered the king,^[a](A) “May the king live forever!^(B) Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

²⁶ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(A) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

²⁷ But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”