[¹] Or, thorn.
18. the thistle] margin, thorn; compare Proverbs xxvi. 9 (same Hebrew word).
¹⁹Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten Edom; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt[¹], that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?
[¹] Or, provoke calamity.
19. Thou sayest] i.e. to thyself.
meddle to thy hurt] margin, provoke calamity, i.e. by making claims which he could not enforce.
²⁰But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought after the gods of Edom.
20. for it was of God] Not in Kings. This turn is characteristic of the Chronicler; compare x. 15, xxii. 7.
²¹So Joash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongeth to Judah.
21. he and Amaziah ... looked one another in the face] The historian by a kind of irony takes up Amaziah’s phrase (verse 17) and gives it a fresh application. Compare the double application (by a similar irony) of the phrase, “lift up the head” in Genesis xl. 13, 19.