The thistle: Judges 9:8-15; 2 Samuel 12:1-4; 1 Kings 4:33; Ezekiel 20:49; The word choach:, which is rendered here, and in 2 Chronicles 25:18; Job 31:18, thistle, in 1 Samuel 13:6, thicket in Isaiah 34:13, bramble, and in 2 Chronicles 33:11; Proverbs 26:9; Song of Solomon 2:2; Hosea 9:6 thorn, is probably the black thorn, or sloe tree, the prunus spinosa: of Linneus, 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).
The comparatively useless thorn, which may by chance lacerate the incautious passenger, is made the emblem of the house of Judah and David, while the house of Jehu is represented by the stately cedar.