They (i.e. the people, as in 2 Kings 18:36) held their peace. Rabshakeh's attempt to shake their fidelity had, at any rate, no manifest effect. For the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
Hezekiah can scarcely have anticipated that Rabshakeh would so far depart from ordinary usage as to make a speech to "the men on the wall." But he may have been in the immediate neighbourhood, and, when apprised of the envoy's proceedings, may have sent the order.
We are not to suppose that the Jewish king was at a loss for an answer. He did not choose to bandy words with an envoy who had behaved himself so outrageously.