2 Chronicles 25:19
Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee? Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?
2 Chronicles 25:19 belongs to the history of the unstable Amaziah in 2 Chronicles 25. The thistle-and-cedar fable connected with it is personification, in which the thistle is represented as proposing a marriage alliance to the cedar. The preceding part of that history teaches that a costly commitment to a wrong course is no reason to continue it, for Amaziah had paid a hundred talents to hire Israel's army and worried about losing it. He was told that God could give him much more than that, so he sent the army away and won without it, showing that God's blessing is worth more than earthly riches.
Within the larger account of 2 Chronicles 23 to 32, this history shows that doing duty brought blessing while departing from God brought strife and captivity and great loss. It shows how different things might have been if men had remembered God. It shows how willing God was to turn to help His people and work mightily for them when they sought Him with all the heart.