Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 36:12

"But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? [hath he] not [sent me] to the men that sit upon the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?" — Isaiah 36:12 (ASV)

Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall ...? —The words, which in their brutal coarseness have hardly a parallel in history, until we come to Bismarck’s telling the Parisians that they may “stew in their own gravy,” imply that the Assyrians were in a position to cut off the supplies both of food and water.