2 Chronicles 25:18

Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice,.... Not of God, nor of his prophets, but of some of his nobles like himself: and sent to Joash--king of Israel; of his message to him here, and his answer in the two following verses, see the following notes: See Gill on 2 Kings 14:8. See Gill on 2 Kings 14:9. See Gill on 2 Kings 14:10.

25:17-28 Never was a proud prince more thoroughly mortified than Amaziah by Joash king of Israel. A man's pride will bring him low, Pr 29:23; it goes before his destruction, and deservedly brings it on. He that exalteth himself shall be abased. He that goes forth hastily to strive, will not know what he shall do in the end thereof, when his neighbour has put him to shame, Pr 25:8. And what are we when we offer to establish our own righteousness, or presume to justify ourselves before the Most High God, but despicable thistles, that fancy themselves stately cedars? And are not various temptations, is not every corruption, a wild beast of the desert, which will trample on the wretched boaster, and tread his haughty pretensions to the dust? A man's pride shall bring him low; his ruin may be dated from his turning from the Lord.

Verse 18. - The thistle... sent to the cedar . While other history shows frequently the abounding Eastern delight in this exact kind of composition, it will be remembered that it is not absent from Scripture, and that this is not the first recorded instance of it by three hundred and fifty years, for see Judges 9:7-15 . The thistle ; Hebrew, הַחוַח . The word occurs, beside the four times here and in the parallel, eight other times: 1 Samuel 13:6 ; 2 Chronicles 33:11 ; Job 31:40 ; Job 41:2 ; Proverbs 26:9 ; Song of Solomon 2:2 ; Isaiah 34:13 ; Hosea 9:6 . Although, then, the word we have here is not the "bramble" ( אָטָד ) of Judges 9:15 , which also is brought before us in its contrast with Lebanon's cedar, yet the bramble bush, chiefly in virtue of its characteristic thorn , best answers to the average suggestions of all the twelve instances of the use of our word. 2 Chronicles 25:18

The war with Joash, king of Israel. - Instead of following the counsel of the prophet, Amaziah consulted (sc., with his public officials or courtiers), and challenged King Joash of Israel to war. The challenge, and the war which followed, are also narrated in 2 Kings 14:8-14 in agreement with our account, and have been already commented upon at that place, where we have also considered the occasion of this war, so fatal to Amaziah and the kingdom of Judah, on account of which has been handed down to us only in the supplementary narrative of the Chronicle. לך in 2 Chronicles 25:17 for לכה, come, as in Numbers 23:13 and Judges 19:13 . - In 2 Chronicles 25:20 the chronicler explains Amaziah's refusal to hear the warning of Joash before the war with him, by a reference to the divine determination: "For it (came) of God (that Amaziah still went to war), that He might deliver them (the men of Judah) into the hand, because they had sought the gods of Edom." בּיד נתן, to give into the power of the enemy. - In 2 Chronicles 25:23 , הפּונה שׁער is a manifest error for הפּנּה ( 2 Kings 14:13 ). Were הפּונה, the gate that turns itself, faces (in some direction), correct, the direction would have to be given towards which it turned, e.g., Ezekiel 8:3 . - וגו וכל־הזּהב, 2 Chronicles 25:24 , still depends upon תּפשׂ, 2 Chronicles 25:23 : and (took away) all the gold, etc. In 2 Kings 14:14 , ולקח is supplied.

Verse 18. - And the rest of the acts of Amaziah - especially the circumstances of his war with Edom, as related in 2 Chronicles 25:5-13 , his idolatry ( 2 Chronicles 25:14 ), and the rebuke which he received from one of God's prophets ( 2 Chronicles 25:15, 16 ) in consequence - are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 2 Kings 14:18