2 Chronicles 25:18 - Exposition

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 9:7-15 . The thistle; Hebrew, הַחוֹחַ . 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 ; So Proverbs 2:2 ; Isaiah 34:13 ; Hosea 9:6 . Although, then, the word we have here is not the "bramble" ( אָטָד ) of 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.