Bible Strands
2 Kings 18:27
But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Rabshakeh addresses Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah while standing before Jerusalem’s fortified wall during the Assyrian siege. He deliberately switches back to Hebrew to ensure the defenders hear his taunt.
The words — The Hebrew phrase רַב־שָׁקֵה (rav-shaqeh) literally means “chief commander,” identifying the Rabshakeh’s official Assyrian title. The verb שׁלח (shalach) appears in the rhetorical question “has he sent me,” emphasizing the Rabshakeh’s claimed authority from the Assyrian king.
The thread — This threat of starvation appears in Deuteronomy 28:53 as a covenant curse and recurs in 2 Kings 6:25 during the siege of Samaria. The mocking tone parallels the arrogant threats recorded in Psalm 73:8.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that siege warfare relies on psychological breakdown as much as military force. It requires the reader to confront how language is weaponized to strip hope from those under siege.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But Rab–shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:53 Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
- 2 Kings 6:25 So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
- Psalms 73:8 They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.
- Lamentations 4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
- Ezekiel 4:13 Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
- Ezekiel 4:15 “Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”