Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.

And he wrote letters the second time to them, saying: If you be mine, and will obey me, take the heads of the sons of your master, and come to me to Jezrahel by to morrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy men, were brought up with the chief men of the city.

And he wrote a letter the second time to them saying, If ye are mine, and will hearken to my voice, take the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jizreel to-morrow at this time. Now the king's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.

Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be on my side, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.

And he writeth unto them a letter a second time, saying, 'If ye are for me, and to my voice are hearkening, take the heads of the men, the sons of your lord, and come unto me about this time to-morrow, to Jezreel;' and the sons of the king are seventy men, with the great ones of the city those bringing them up.

Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If you be mine, and if you will listen to my voice, take you the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.

Then he sent them a second letter, saying, If you are on my side, and if you will do my orders, come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow, with the heads of your master's sons. Now the king's seventy sons were with the great men of the town, who had the care of them.

Then he again wrote letters to them a second time, saying: "If you are mine, and if you obey me, take the heads of the sons of your lord, and come to me at Jezreel at this same hour tomorrow." Now the sons of the king, being seventy men, were being raised with the nobles of the city.

The heads of rivals, pretenders, and other obnoxious persons are commonly struck off in the East, and conveyed to the chief ruler, in order that he may be positively certified that his enemies have ceased to live. In the Assyrian sculptures we constantly see soldiers conveying heads from place to place, not, however, in baskets, but in their hands, holding the head by the hair.

Come to me to Jezreel - Therefore the letters were not written to Jezreel, but from Jezreel to Samaria.

Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye [be] mine, and [if] ye will hearken unto my voice, (c) take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king's sons, [being] seventy persons, [were] with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
(c) God as a just judge punishes the wicked children of wicked parents to the third and fourth generations.

Then he wrote a letter the second time to them,.... Having gained his point by the former:
saying, if ye be mine, acknowledge yourselves my subjects and servants:
and if ye will hearken to my voice; obey my commands:
take ye the heads of the men your master's sons; that is, take off their heads:
and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time meaning with the heads along with them:
(now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up;) they were in their houses, and under their tuition, and so had an authority over them, and could dispose of them at pleasure; they were not ordinary persons to whose care they were committed, but the principal men of the city.

take ye the heads of the men, your master's sons--The barbarous practice of a successful usurper slaughtering all who may have claims to the throne, has been frequently exemplified in the ancient and modern histories of the East.

Jehu then wrote them a second letter, to say that if they would hearken to his voice, they were to send to him on the morrow at this time, to Jezreel, the heads of the sons of their lord; which they willingly did, slaying the seventy men, and sending him their heads in baskets. אד בּני אנשׁי ראשׁי, "the heads of the men of sons of your lord," i.e., of the male descendants of Ahab, in which אנשׁי may be explained from the fact that בּני־אדניכם has the meaning "royal princes" (see the similar case in Judges 19:22). In order to bring out still more clearly the magnitude of Jehu's demand, the number of the victims required is repeated in the circumstantial clause, "and there were seventy men of the king's sons with (את) the great men of the city, who had brought them up."