2 Kings 10:1–14

And Ahab had seventy sons in ^aSamaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab’s children, saying, ²Now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armour; ³look even out the best and meetest of your master’s sons, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house. ⁴But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand? ⁵And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying, ^bWe are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes. ⁶Then 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. ⁷And 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 ^cbaskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. ⁸And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning. ⁹And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous: behold, ^dI conspired against my master, and slew him: but who slew all these? ¹⁰Know now that there shall ^efall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the Lord hath done that which he spake ^fby his servant Elijah. ¹¹So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his ^gpriests, until ^hhe left him none remaining.

¹²And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way, ¹³Jehu met with the ⁱbrethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the ^kqueen. ¹⁴And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them.