⁷ During the time of King Artaxerxes of Persia,^(A) Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic^(B) and translated.^[a]

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,^(A) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew^[a] within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”