5. Therefore, those who were in charge of the house, and the prefects of the city, and those greater by birth, and those who raised the sons, sent to Jehu, saying: "We are your servants. Whatever you will order, we will do. But we will not appoint a king for ourselves. Do whatever pleases you."
6. 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.
7. And when the letters had arrived to them, they took the sons of the king, and they killed the seventy men. And they placed their heads in baskets, and they sent these to him at Jezreel.
8. Then a messenger arrived and reported to him, saying, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons." And he responded, "Place them in two piles, beside the entrance of the gate, until morning."
9. And when it had become light, he went out. And standing there, he said to all the people: "You are just. If I have conspired against my lord, and if I have killed him, who has struck down all of these?
10. Now therefore, see that none of the words of the Lord has fallen to the ground, which the Lord spoke over the house of Ahab, and that the Lord has done what he spoke by the hand of his servant Elijah."