2 Kings 18:27

2Ki 18:27 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 which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

Ver. 27. Hath he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall?] The soldiers and common sort, of whom your master and you take little care what extremities they undergo, as they are shortly sure to do by a long siege.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 18:27-29. Hath he not sent me to the men, &c. — To tell them to what extremity and misery he will force them. Then Rab-shakeh cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language — That he might affright the people into a compliance with his proposal, which he perceived that Eliakim and his brethren endeavoured to prevent. Thus saith the king, &c. — Here he proclaims again, with the greatest assurance, the power of his king, and the weakness of Hezekiah; representing from thence, how they were deluded with empty promises if he persuaded them he should be able to defend them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:27 my master . . . wants all the people to hear: The Assyrians used the native tongue of a besieged city as part of their psychological warfare.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, the water of their feet.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

Next: 2 Kings Chapter 19

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 27. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(27) Hath my master . . .—Rather, Is it to thy lord and to thee that my lord hath sent me to speak these words?

The men which sit on the wall—i.e., the soldiers on guard.

That they may eat . . .—These coarse words are meant to express the consequence of their resistance: it will bring them to such dire straits that they will be fain to appease the cravings of hunger and thirst with the vilest garbage. (Comp. 2Ki_6:25 seq.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

With you. Insolent bravado! whence some have inferred the probability of pigeons’ dung being really eaten, chap. vi. 25. (Calmet) --- Rabsaces threatens them with all the horrors of famine, so that they shall eat such things, if they refuse to give up the city. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To tell them to what extremities and miseries he will force them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. That they may eat their own dung — “He says in substance: Ye are abusing your common people. In exposing them to a wasting siege ye are bringing them, with yourselves, into the direct extremity, so that they will at last be compelled to consume their own excrement.” — Bahr.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 which sit on the wall? An intolerable speech on the part of an envoy, and one which might have justified an order to send an arrow through his head. Ambassadors are accredited by governments to governments, and the safe conduct granted to them is on the understanding that they will conduct themselves according to established usage. In no state of society can it have been allowable for envoys to intervene between the governors and the governed, and endeavor to stir up discontent among the latter. Yet this is what Rabshakeh did, and boasted of doing. Well might Isaiah say of such an arrogant and lawless aggressor, "He hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man". (see Isa_33:8) That they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you? Rabshakeh means to say that the effect of the men "sitting on the wall," and continuing the defense of the town, will be to bring them to the last extremity of hunger and thirst, when they will be forced even to consume their own excrement. (comp. 2Ki_6:25-29)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the men - To tell them to what extremities and miseries he will force them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

To eat their own excrement. In the hunger [caused] by the siege.

Their dung. Dung that is excreted through the orifice of the anus. Our Rabbis explained to euphemize and read, “צואתם” [instead of חריהם].

Their own urine. Loose excrement, the glands of the rectum, which is held by three glands. Alternatively, an expression of excrement which comes about through the chewing of the teeth [=שניהם].

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.