⁵ So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: “We are your servants^(A) and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.”

⁶ Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.”

Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. ⁷ When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy^(B) of them. They put their heads^(C) in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.