Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
Then said Eliakim ... Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language х 'Araamiyt (H762)] - the Aramaic, the language spoken in the country north and east of Palestine, and also the common dialect of Mesopotamia. It must, therefore, have been known to the Assyrian officers. Besides, it had a close affinity to their own language (cf. 2 Kings 5:5-7), and to the Hebrew also, although it was an unknown tongue to the common people. In the Old Testament, this north Semitic or Aramaean tongue is called in our version Syrian (see the notes at Genesis 31:47), and but rarely Chaldee (2 Kings 1:4). From the narrative before us, it appears that this language was the medium of communication between the Assyrians and the Jews, as in later times the Persians employed it in their public edicts (Ezra 4:7).
Talk not with us in the Jews' language, х Yªhuwdiyt (H3066)] - the Jewish language, because the ten tribes, who also spoke Hebrew, had been transplanted to Assyria, and none were left who spoke that language but the people of Judah. Apprehending that this blaspheming harangue would produce the effect of exciting alarm and tumult among the people, they made the mild and reasonable suggestion that, since the conference was exclusively with the heads of the Jewish government, Rab-shakeh would communicate his proposals in the Syrian language.