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[193]
Now upon the victory which Amaziah had gotten, and the great acts
he had done, he was puffed up, and began to overlook God, who had given
him the victory, and proceeded to worship the gods he had brought out of
the country of the Amalekites. So a prophet came to him, and said, that
he wondered how he could esteem these to be gods, who had been of no advantage
to their own people who paid them honors, nor had delivered them from his
hands, but had overlooked the destruction of many of them, and had suffered
themselves to be carried captive, for that they had been carried to Jerusalem
in the same manner as any one might have taken some of the enemy alive,
and led them thither. This reproof provoked the king to anger, and he commanded
the prophet to hold his peace, and threatened to punish him if he meddled
with his conduct. So he replied, that he should indeed hold his peace;
but foretold withal, that God would not overlook his attempts for innovation.
But Amaziah was not able to contain himself under that prosperity which
God had given him, although he had affronted God thereupon; but in a vein
of insolence he wrote to Joash, the king of Israel, and commanded that
he and all his people should be obedient to him, as they had formerly been
obedient to his progenitors, David and Solomon; and he let him know, that
if he would not be so wise as to do what he commanded him, he must fight
for his dominion. To which message Joash returned this answer in writing:
"King Joash to king Amaziah. There was a vastly tall cypress tree
in Mount Lebanon, as also a thistle; this thistle sent to the cypress tree
to give the cypress tree's daughter in marriage to the thistle's son; but
as the thistle was saying this, there came a wild beast, and trod down
the thistle: and this may be a lesson to thee, not to be so ambitious,
and to have a care, lest upon thy good success in the fight against the
Amalekites thou growest so proud, as to bring dangers upon thyself and
upon thy kingdom."
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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