But Rabshakeh said, hath my master sent me to thy master, and
to thee, to speak these words?
&c.] That is, to them only, that he should use a language only understood by them: hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall;
and therefore it is proper to speak in a language which they understand, and to let them know that if they will not surrender up the city, but will attempt to hold out a siege, they must expect that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
suggesting that they must expect a close siege, which would not be broke up until the city was taken; the consequence of which would be such a famine, that they would be reduced to such extremities. The Jews have substituted other words in the margin, instead of those in the text, as more cleanly, and less offensive; for "dung" they put "excrement", and for "piss" they read "the waters of the feet"; and had we in our version put excrement and urine instead of these words, it would have been more decent.