⁹ How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?^{(A) 10} Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s approval? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(B) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew^[a] within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”