Northern Cedar Vs. Southern Thorn

Kings 2 14:9

The next round of rivalry between the North and South goes up a notch in today’s chapter. King Yoash of Israel ends up in battle with King Amazia of Judah, and Israel wins. How much of this is history, is hard to tell, but for any of us struggling to make sense of the frequent dynastic changes, here are a few links that list the rulers of Judah and Israel in chronological order:

view or print this chart, or

read more narrative outline here. 

One of the ways our authors make sense of the growing rupture between the two kingdoms is not data, but poetic parables. The tragic factors leading up to today’s bloody battle include this nature-parable shared via messengers between one king and another. 

Amazia manages to fight the Edomites and conquer back some of the southern lands. Feeling confident, he sends a message to Yoash, king of the north - let’s meet face to face, and fight it out. 

The text in Kings is not clear as to what provoked the provocation. But the parallel text in Chronicles includes more details -- previously, Judah hired 100,000 soldiers from Israel, to help with the war against Edom. But at some point the Northern mercenaries were sent home, without inclusion in the battle and without their promised profits from the loot. This became a point of tension between the two kingdoms and kings, leading to Amazia’s open invitation to fight. 

But Yoash, who is by far the strongest, has no such plans. And his parable, meant to humiliate Amazia, spells this out:  

וַיִּשְׁלַ֞ח יְהוֹאָ֣שׁ מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֶל־אֲמַצְיָ֣הוּ מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה֮ לֵאמֹר֒ הַח֜וֹחַ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּלְּבָנ֗וֹן שָׁ֠לַ֠ח אֶל־הָאֶ֜רֶז אֲשֶׁ֤ר בַּלְּבָנוֹן֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר תְּנָה־אֶת־בִּתְּךָ֥ לִבְנִ֖י לְאִשָּׁ֑ה וַֽתַּעֲבֹ֞ר חַיַּ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּלְּבָנ֔וֹן וַתִּרְמֹ֖ס אֶת־הַחֽוֹחַ׃

“King Yoash of Israel sent back this message to King Amaziah of Judah: “The thistle in Lebanon sent this message to the cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ But a wild beast in Lebanon went by and trampled down the thistle.”

Kings 2 14:9

Or, in other words -- Yoash tells Amazia - you are a thorn in my side, low and weak, and why do you even bother?  The wedding allusion is peculiar, and may echo the use of this idiom between different plants and their prominence from similar use at the time.

National pride can often replace basic wisdom. Amazia disregards the warning - and wages war on Israel’s Yoash, and soon realizes his mistake. The army of Judah is defeated and Jerusalem itself is attacked, its walls breached, and its treasury sacked.  The king himself is a prisoner of war.

Yoash takes not only the gold and silver still left over in the temple, but also hostages, and goes back to his palace in Samaria. It’s unclear if Amazia is among them, or for how long.

Amazia, amazingly, somehow, remains on the throne of fifteen more years after this debacle and then he too is executed in a coup. His son Azaria - who will also be known as Uzziah, or Uzziahu, 16 years old, is placed on the throne of David replacing his father. He will be on it for more then 50 years - but share his crown with his son, Yotam. More on that later.

In Israel meanwhile, Yoash dies peacefully and his son, Jeroboam the 2nd begins his 41 year (!!) long rule. The struggle between the two neighbors and their enemies from north and east - continues. 

  There are no more prophets that we know of who hold the kings’ hands in counsel or war. Except one that is mentioned briefly today, Jonah son of Amitai, shows up for a moment during Rehoboam's reign, upholding the vision of hope for the people. Scholars debate the possibility that this is the same man who ends up in the belly of the fish, or, what’s most likely, not.

No other words of prophecy or poetry are recorded in these chapters, covered up by the dust of war.

A curious homage to this lesser known diplomatic failure is an autobiography written in England in 1853, by Habeeb Risk Allah, a Christian Syrian doctor and traveler,  detailing life in his native  levant - including the many ongoing battles.

He named his book The Thistle and the Cedar of Lebanon, because “In choosing the title, I have acted upon the long-established usage of my countrymen of speaking parabolically, a practice which has existed from the days of Job down to the present time.”

The thistle thorns of Judea still grow in the region, with beautiful flowers in the spring, and the mighty cedar trees of Lebanon, withstanding deforestation, still tower in the north. The co-existence in the ecosystem of nature with all its subtle webs of connectivity do not seem to rub off too well on the human players. The parable used here is another indication of where hubris and humiliation, pride and prejudice, are prioritized above and beyond common sense and compassion, again and again. Perhaps what our authors are trying to tell us is that human nature, despite its weakness, contains a bit of both. Sometimes it pays to be as humble as the thistle, and at other times it’s better to aspire higher, confident and in control. 

Image: Habeeb Risk Allah Efendi, author of The Thistle and the Cedar of Lebanon , 1853 

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