And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah the king of
Judah
By the return of his messengers:
saying, the thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in
Lebanon;
intending by this proverbial way of speaking to humble the pride of Amaziah; comparing him to a thistle or thorn, a low, mean, abject, weak, prickly, and troublesome shrub, and himself to a cedar, a tree high and lofty, strong, large, and spreading:
saying, give thy daughter to my son to wife;
signifying, that if in a peaceable manner he had desired to contract affinity with him, and so establish mutual friendship, he should have despised him as being as much below him as the thistle is below a cedar; and therefore should still more despise and defy him, who addressed him in an hostile manner, and in such haughty language:
and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trod down the
thistle;
and so there was an end put at once to its pride and ambition, and to its treaty with the cedar; intimating hereby, that his soldiers would as easily vanquish and destroy the army of Amaziah as a wild beast can destroy a thistle.