2 Kings 10:6

“Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, etc.] 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…”

“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.”

“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. return to 'Top of Page'”

“10:6-7 Decapitation of enemies was a common practice in the ancient Near East (6:31-32; 1 Sam 17:46, 51; cp. Matt 14:11).”

“Kg1 21:8-11 If ye be mine: Heb. If ye be for me, Kg2 9:32; Mat 12:30; Luk 9:50 take ye: Num 25:4 your master's sons: Deu 5:9; Jos 7:24, Jos 7:25; Job 21:19; Isa 14:21, Isa 14:22; Rev 2:20-23 which brought them up: "The rich," says Mr. Morier, "hire a dedeh, or wet nurse for their children. If a boy, the father appoints a steady man from the age of two years to be his laleh, who, I conjecture, must stand in the same capacity as the bringers up of children mentioned in the catastrophe of Ahab's sons. But if it be a daughter, she has a gees sefeed, or white head, attached to her for the same purpose as the laleh. 4 Kings (2 Kings) 10:7”

“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 Jdg 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…”