Then he wrote a letter the second time to them
 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 principal men of the city.