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2 Kings 18:27

in 2 Kings 18

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?”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

But Rabshakeh 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 that sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?

KJV

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?

This verse in 2 Kings 18

Commentary

8 notes on this verse
That they may eat ... - “My master hath sent me,” the Rab-shakeh seems to say, “to these men, whom I see stationed on the wall to defend the place and bear the last extremities of a prolonged siege - these men on whom its worst evils will fall, and who have therefore the greatest interest in avoiding it by a timely surrender.” He expresses the evils by a strong coarse phrase, suited to the rude soldiery, and well calculated to rouse their feelings. The author of Chronicles has softened down the words 2Ch 32:11.

This site's exposition

to thy servants in the Syrian language

on 2 Kings 18:26-27

Eliakim asks for Syrian, the diplomatic language the officials share, so the people on the wall will not hear a threat in their own tongue, and the request itself concedes how much the speech has already landed. Rab-shakeh refuses in the coarsest terms the text records, naming the siege's own coming horror, that the men on the wall will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with the defenders, a threat aimed at the common soldiers rather than at the throne. The refusal is the turn on which the speech moves from private negotiation to public psychological warfare.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 18:19 · Written before 373.

As I have already said, Sennacherib is a type of the devil, and this hypothesis is perfectly confirmed by the words that in this passage the Rabshakeh boastfully speaks against God when he makes false promises to the people, trying to take away from [God] …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

What an idol did he make of that prince whose creature he was! God is the great King, but Sennacherib was in his eye a little god, and he would possess them with the same veneration for him that he had, and thereby frighten them into a submission to him. But to those who by faith see the King of kings in his power and glory even the king of Assyria looks mean and little.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

His great piety, which was the more wonderful because his father was very wicked and vile, one of the worst of the kings, yet he was one of the best, which may intimate to us that what good there is in any is not of nature, but of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, which, contrary to nature, grafts into the good olive that which was wild by nature ( Rom. xi.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Against all the rules of decency and honour, instead of treating with the commissioners, he menaces the soldiery, persuades them to desert or mutiny, threatens if they hold out to reduce the to the last extremities of famine, and then goes on with his discourse, the scope of which is to persuade Hezekiah, and his princes and people, to surrender the city.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

that they may eat, &c.--This was designed to show the dreadful extremities to which, in the threatened siege, the people of Jerusalem would be reduced.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

That they may eat their own dung - That they may be duly apprised, if they hold on Hezekiah’s side, Jerusalem shall be most straitly besieged, and they be reduced to such a state of famine as to be obliged to eat their own excrements.

The words behind it

26 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֨אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • אֲלֵיהֶ֜םto them

    ʾaleihemH4135510 times

  • רַב־[the] chief

    rav-H726232 times

  • שָׁקֵ֗הcommander

    shakehH726232 times

  • הַעַ֨ל¿ to

    haalH59215755 times

  • אֲדֹנֶ֤יךָmaster<s> your

    ʾadoneikhaH113333 times

  • וְאֵלֶ֙יךָ֙and to you

    veeleikhaH4135510 times

  • שְׁלָחַ֣נִיhas he sent me

    shelachaniH7971845 times

  • אֲדֹנִ֔יmaster my

    ʾadoniH113333 times

  • לְדַבֵּ֖רto speak

    ledaberH16961141 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הַדְּבָרִ֣יםthe words

    hadevarimH16971440 times

  • הָאֵ֑לֶּה<the> these

    haelehH428746 times

  • הֲלֹ֣א¿ not

    halo'H38085168 times

  • עַל־to

    ʾal-H59215755 times

  • הָאֲנָשִׁ֗יםthe men

    haanashimH582566 times

  • הַיֹּֽשְׁבִים֙who are sitting

    haiyoshevimH34271079 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H59215755 times

  • הַ֣חֹמָ֔הthe wall

    hachomahH2346133 times

  • לֶאֱכֹ֣לto eat

    leekholH398810 times

  • אֶת<obj.>

    ʾetH85310935 times

  • צוֹאָתָ֗םown excrement their

    chareihemH6675

  • וְלִשְׁתּ֛וֹתand to drink

    velishtotH8354217 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • מימֵ֥י רַגְלֵיהֶ֖ם[the] water of feet their

    mimei ragleihemH4325H7272247 times

  • עִמָּכֶֽם׃with you

    ʾimakhemH59731050 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 73:8

    They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

    it leads to

    • Jude 1:16

      These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.

    • Psalms 17:10

      They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.

  • Through

    Lamentations 4:5

    Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.

    it leads to

    • Luke 16:19

      Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.

    • Luke 15:16

      He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.

    • Proverbs 31:21

      When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for they are all clothed in scarlet.

  • Through

    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…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 14:13–15

      “Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

    • Jeremiah 52:6

      By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

    • Jeremiah 14:18

      If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land…

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Kings

Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 18:19; F. W. Farrar, The Second Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.