What Does Isaiah 36:11 Mean in the King James?
Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The request reveals that understanding is contested ground: a threat changes force when the people on the wall can hear it.
THE MEANING
The request shows how much a threat’s reach depends on who can understand it. The officials ask to hear the message in a language the people on the wall will not understand, seeking to place a boundary between the words and their audience. The wall stands between the armies; language is asked to stand between the crowd and the threat.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמְעִים
shomʿim
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, or understand.
Where the KJV says “we understand it,” the Hebrew literally says “we are hearing.” The verse then places the people on the wall “in the ears” of the speaker, making access to hearing, and therefore understanding, the central concern.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
This verb shares the root of “we are hearing,” linking comprehension with receiving what is spoken.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is what is heard and carried onward; this branch shows how hearing lets a message reach beyond its speaker.
דַּבֵּר
dabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speak or utter; the same root also forms a word or matter.
The request repeats this verb: speak to us in one language, and do not speak to us in another within the people’s hearing. Its root also forms “word” and “matter,” linking utterance with what becomes the subject of public attention.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The spoken word shares a root with what becomes a matter or thing at issue; here, the language chosen makes the threat a public matter or keeps it from one audience.
dibbur: Speech, utterance.
דִּבּוּר
This noun names the act of speaking itself, the means the officials seek to direct toward one audience and away from another.
THE PATTERN
Language shapes who can receive a message, so control of language also controls access to it.
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.THE THREAD
Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.The request in verse 11 tries to keep the people on the wall from understanding the exchange. In verse 13, Rabshakeh speaks their language and addresses them directly, making the feared audience his target.
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