Judges 9:8-15

9:8 “The trees were determined to go out ¹  and choose a king for themselves. ²  They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king!’ ³  9:9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘I am not going to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and men, just to sway above the other trees!’ ⁴ 

9:10 “So the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king!’ ⁵  9:11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘I am not going to stop producing my sweet figs, my excellent fruit, just to sway above the other trees!’ ⁶ 

9:12 “So the trees said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king!’ ⁷  9:13 But the grapevine said to them, ‘I am not going to stop producing my wine, which makes gods and men so happy, just to sway above the other trees!’ ⁸ 

9:14 “So all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘You come and be our king!’ ⁹  9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ¹⁰  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ¹¹  Otherwise ¹²  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Judges 9:1

Abimelech Murders His Brothers

9:1 Now Abimelech son of Jerub-Baal went to Shechem to see his mother’s relatives. ¹³  He said to them and to his mother’s entire extended family, ¹⁴ 

Judges 8:5

8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, “Give ¹⁵  some loaves of bread to the men ¹⁶  who are following me, ¹⁷  because they are exhausted. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

Judges 12:12

12:12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

John 6:15

6:15 Then Jesus, because he knew they were going to come and seize him by force to make him king, withdrew again up the mountainside alone. ¹⁸ 

[9:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Going they went, the trees.” The precise emphatic force of the infinitive absolute (“Going”) is not entirely clear. Perhaps here it indicates determination, as in Gen 31:30, where one might translate, “You have insisted on going away.”

[9:8]  ² tn Heb “to anoint [with oil] over them a king.”

[9:8]  ³ tn Or “Rule over us!”

[9:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “Should I stop my abundance, with which they honor gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?” The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.

[9:10]  ⁵ tn Or “and rule over us!”

[9:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “Should I stop my sweetness and my good fruit and go to sway over the trees? The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.

[9:12]  ⁷ tn Or “and rule over us!”

[9:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “Should I stop my wine, which makes happy gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?” The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.

[9:14]  ⁹ tn Or “and rule over us!”

[9:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

[9:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in my shade.”

[9:15]  ¹² tn Heb “If not.”

[9:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “brothers.”

[9:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to all the extended family of the house of the father of his mother.”

[8:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps, “sell.”

[8:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “people.” The translation uses “men” because these were warriors and in ancient Israelite culture would have been exclusively males.

[8:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “who are at my feet.”

[6:15]  ¹⁸ sn Jesus, knowing that his “hour” had not yet come (and would not, in this fashion) withdrew again up the mountainside alone. The ministry of miracles in Galilee, ending with this, the multiplication of the bread (the last public miracle in Galilee recorded by John) aroused such a popular response that there was danger of an uprising. This would have given the authorities a legal excuse to arrest Jesus. The nature of Jesus’ kingship will become an issue again in the passion narrative of the Fourth Gospel (John 18:33ff.). Furthermore, the volatile reaction of the Galileans to the signs prepares for and foreshadows the misunderstanding of the miracle itself, and even the misunderstanding of Jesus’ explanation of it (John 6:22-71).