So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah,.... Both through the kingdoms of the ten tribes of Israel, and the kingdom of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin:
and according to the commandment of the king, saying; so they were ordered by the king to say, when they delivered the letters which by the king's commandment they carried; or this was the purport of them, as follows, especially of those that were sent to the ten tribes:
ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; from whom they had revolted, and from whose worship they had departed, by setting up and serving the calves at Dan and Bethel:
and he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the king of Assyria; Pul and Tiglathpileser, who had both invaded their land, and the latter had taken many of their cities, and carried the inhabitants captive, 2 Kings 15:19.