2 Kings 14:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The thistle that was in Lebanon— This address is a proverb derived from the fable; a kind of speech which corresponds in all respects to writing by hieroglyphics; each being a symbol of something else to be understood: and as it sometimes happened when a hieroglyphic became famous, that it lost its particular signification, and assumed a general one, as the caducaeus, which at first was painted only to denote the pacific office of Hermes, became in time the common symbol of league and amity; so it was with the apologue; of which, when any one became celebrated for the art and beauty of its composition, or for some extraordinary efficacy in its application, it was soon converted and worn into a proverb. We have a fine instance of this in the present message of Jehoash to Amaziah, which alludes to the apologue of Jotham, in Judges 9:7., and shews us plainly, that this satirical apologue of the thistle and cedar was now become a proverb. See Div. Leg. vol. 3: Considering the circumstances of the person addressed, who was, comparatively to many, but a petty prince, flushed with a little good success, and thereupon impatient to enlarge his kingdom, no similitude could be better adapted than that of a thistle, a low contemptible shrub, but, upon its having drawn blood of some traveller, grown proud, and affecting an equality with the cedar, a tall stately tree, the pride and ornament of the wood; till, in the midst of all its arrogance and presumption, it is unhappily trodden down by the beasts of the forest; which Joash intimates would be Amaziah's fate, if he continued to provoke a prince of his superior power and strength. See Calmet and Scheuchzer.