But Rabshakeh said, 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 upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
Hath my master sent me to thy master ... ? - Is it to thy master and thee that I am sent? Nay, it is to the men on the wall, to let them know (so far am I from wishing them not to hear, as you would wish) that unless they surrender, they shall be reduces to the direst extremities of famine in the siege (2 Chronicles 32:11, explains the words here) - namely, to eat their own excrements; or, connecting, "that they may eat," etc., with "sit upon the wall;" who, as they hold the wall instead of surrendering, are knowingly exposing themselves to the direst extremities (Maurer). Isaiah, as a faithful historian, records the filthy and blasphemous language of the Assyrians, to mark aright the true character of the attack on Jerusalem.