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Isaiah 36:10-12
New English Translation
Isaiah 36:10-12
New English Translation
10 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’”[a]
11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic,[b] for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect[c] in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you.[d] His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!”[e]
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- Isaiah 36:10 sn In v. 10 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 7. He claims that Hezekiah has offended the Lord and that the Lord has commissioned Assyria as his instrument of discipline and judgment.
- Isaiah 36:11 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Assyrian empire.
- Isaiah 36:11 tn Or “in Hebrew” (NIV, NCV, NLT); NAB, NASB “in Judean.”
- Isaiah 36:12 tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
- Isaiah 36:12 tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.
New English Translation (NET)
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