2 Kings 18:27
But Rab-shakeh 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? But Rab-shakeh 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?
The verse belongs to the sad story of transgression, war, strife, defeat, captivity and conspiracy during the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah. It stands in the closing eight-chapter record of Kings that hastens from the utter breaking up of the northern kingdom of Samaria in chapter seventeen to the Babylonian captivity of Judah, covering the reigns of Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. The chapter belongs to the five chapters given to the two good kings Hezekiah and Josiah, devoted men of God notwithstanding their mistakes.
Hezekiah's mistake exalted man, aroused the cupidity of Babylon and brought captivity upon his own seed, and after his mistake the wicked Manasseh was born, though mercy came even to him. The verse is part of the account of Sennacherib's invasion of Palestine and siege of Jerusalem, an episode also recorded on Sennacherib's cylinder, whose inscription confirms the biblical account. Rabshakeh deliberately directs his words not only to Hezekiah and his officials but to the men defending Jerusalem on the wall, warning that they will share the extremities of a siege with their king in order to frighten and discourage them into surrender.
The degrading threat means the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem would suffer extreme hunger and thirst in a siege, even to eating their own dung and drinking their own urine. The verse belongs to the story of Hezekiah in trouble, showing that God is a friend to His people in trouble who delivers those who trust Him. Hezekiah's experience teaches spreading troubles before God in prayer, as he spread the threatening letter before the Lord and told God his troubles.
Hezekiah's experience warns children to learn faith, self-denial and trust in God now, so they will not be overwhelmed in the coming time of trouble. Read with 2 Kings 19, 2 Chronicles 32 and Isaiah 37, the account of the Assyrian campaign shows that the Assyrian army was not near Jerusalem but was with the king of Assyria at Libnah when the angel slew 185,000 men, so that destruction cannot fulfill the prophecy about Tophet in Isaiah 30:33.