Instructed to lay down their heads (4)
I believe the answer is:
told
'instructed' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'to lay down their heads' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'to' is found in the answer.
'down' could be 'd' and 'd' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'l' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for told that I've seen before include "Assured" , "instructed" , "Made an impact" , "Produced effect; related" , "Said" .)