23
I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many men to ride them!
24
You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and cavalry!
25
Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the Lord's help? The Lord himself told me to attack it and destroy it."
26
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, "Speak Aramaic to us, sir. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening."
27
He replied, "Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.