Judges 9:8-9

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 

Judges 15:5

15:5 He lit the torches ⁵  and set the jackals loose in the Philistines’ standing grain. He burned up the grain heaps and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

[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.

[15:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “He set fire to the torches.”