New Revised Standard Version
King Jehoash of Israel sent word to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife’; but a wild animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thornbush.

Contemporary English Version
Jehoash sent back this reply: Once upon a time, a small thornbush in Lebanon announced that his son was going to marry the daughter of a large cedar tree. But a wild animal came along and trampled the small bush.

New American Bible
Joash, king of Israel, sent this reply to Amaziah, king of Judah: “A thistle of Lebanon sent word to a cedar of Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage,’ but an animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle underfoot.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Joas, king of Israel, sent again to Amasias, king of Juda, saying: A thistle of Libanus sent to a cedar tree, which is in Libanus, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to wife. And the beasts of the forest, that are in Libanus, passed, and trod down the thistle.

And Joas, king of Israel, sent again to Amasias, king of Juda, saying: A thistle of Libanus sent to a cedar tree, which is in Libanus, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to wife. And the beasts of the forest, that are in Libanus, passed, and trod down the thistle.

The thistle

Judges 9:8-15 The trees went to anoint a king over them: and they said to the olive tree: Reign thou over us. . . .

2 Samuel 12:1-4 And the Lord sent Nathan to David: and when he was come to him, he said to him: There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor. . . .

1 Kings 4:33 And he treated about trees, from the cedar that is in Libanus, unto the hyssop that cometh out of the wall: and he discoursed of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

Ezekiel 20:49 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: they say of me: Doth not this man speak by parables?

2 Chronicles 25:18 But he sent back the messengers, saying: The thistle that is in Libanus, sent to the cedar in Libanus, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and behold the beasts that were in the wood of Libanus passed by and trod down the thistle.

Job 31:18 (For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb:)

{thistle}, in

1 Samuel 13:6 And when the men of Israel saw that they were straitened (for the people were distressed), they hid themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in dens, and in pits.

{thicket} in is

34:13, {bramble},and in

2 Chronicles 33:11 Therefore he brought upon them the captains of he army of the king of the Assyrians: and they took Manasses, and carried him bound with chains and fetters to Babylon.

Proverbs 26:9 As if a thorn should grow in the hand of a drunkard: so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

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Proverbs 2:2 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:

Hosea 9:6 For behold they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them together, Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall inherit their beloved silver, the bur shall be in their tabernacles.

thorn, is probably the black thorn, or sloe tree, the prunus spinosa of Linnaeues, as the same word signifies in Arabic. There is a vast deal of insolent dignity in this remonstrance of Jehoash; but it has nothing conciliatory; no proposal of making amends for the injury his army had done to the unoffending inhabitants of Judah.

2 Chronicles 25:10-13 Then Amasias separated the army, that came to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: but they being much enraged against Juda, returned to their own country. . . .