Bible Strands
2 Kings 10:7
And when the letter arrived, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The city’s leading men execute Jehu’s written command by killing the seventy royal heirs and delivering their heads to Jezreel. This occurs immediately upon the arrival of the letter described in 2 Kings 10:6.
The words — הַ/סֵּ֙פֶר (ha./Se.fer) = the letter; בְּנֵ֣י הַ/מֶּ֔לֶךְ (be.Nei ha./Me.lekh) = the sons of the king. These terms anchor the narrative to the written order and the specific royal lineage targeted for execution.
The thread — This event fulfills the judgment pronounced in 1 Kings 21:21, parallels the royal massacre in 2 Kings 11:1, and structurally mirrors Abimelech’s fratricide in Judges 9:5. Each reference tracks the violent unraveling of a designated royal line.
Why it lands — The text records the mechanical execution of a prior decree, showing how written commands translate into irreversible historical acts. It demands recognition that covenant consequences operate through concrete human agency rather than abstract force.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 21:21 This is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring calamity on you and consume your descendants; I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both slave and free.
- 2 Kings 11:1 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.
- Judges 9:5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.
- 2 Kings 10:9 The next morning, Jehu went out and stood before all the people and said, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all these?
- 2 Chronicles 21:4 When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened himself by putting to the sword all his brothers along with some of the princes of Israel.
- Matthew 14:8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”