What Does 2 Kings 18:26 Mean?
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, to your servants in the Aramaic tongue, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Judean tongue, in the ears of the people who are on the wall.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rab-shakeh, 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.THE KEY
The word rendered “understand” is literally “hear”: the verse makes comprehension a question of whose ears a voice can reach.
THE MEANING
Words travel through overlapping audiences: a message directed to a few can also reach the people within earshot. Here, the request for Aramaic keeps the exchange intelligible to the officials while withholding it from the people on the wall. Who can hear a message shapes who bears its force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a conversation is private just because it is addressed to a few people dissolves when nearby listeners can understand every word.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמְעִים
shom'im
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
sh-m-ʿ
hear, listen, heed
The Hebrew says, in effect, “we are hearing it,” where the KJV gives “we understand it.” Comprehension is pictured as hearing a voice in a language one’s ears receive, making the question of language a question of who can access the words.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear, listen, heed; hear and respond when the context implies a response.
שְׁמַע
The same root can carry hearing into response; here its form describes understanding through hearing.
shemu'ah: A report, news, or what has been heard.
שְׁמֻעָה
A report is speech carried onward to other ears, echoing how a message can move beyond its intended listeners.
THE PATTERN
A voice changes a shared space according to who can hear and understand it.
Come, let us go down, and there mix up their lip, so that they may not hear one another's lip and respond.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.When this voice arose, the crowd came together and was poured into confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own tongue.THE THREAD
Come, let us go down, and there mix up their lip, so that they may not hear one another's lip and respond.The word translated “understand” comes from שׁמע (shama, hear/listen) in both verses. Here, the officials ask which ears can receive the words; in Genesis, people can no longer hear one another’s speech as shared meaning.
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