Judges 9:10
in Judges 9Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and reign over us.’
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
KJV
And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
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This verse in Judges 9
Commentary
5 notes on this verseAnd the trees said to the fig tree,.... Another useful and fruit bearing tree, and to which also good men are sometimes compared, see Son 2:13, come thou, and reign over us: which Jarchi applies to Deborah, but may be better applied to one of Gideon's sons, who, though they had not a personal offer of kingly government themselves, yet it was made to them through their father, and refused, as for himself, so for them; and had it been offered to them, they would have rejected it, as Jotham seems to intimate by this parable.
This site's exposition
Then the trees said to the fig tree
on Judges 9:10-13
Olive, fig and vine are the crops of a settled land, listed at Deuteronomy 8:8. Each refuses in the same terms, that ruling would cost it its fruit. The vine's "wine that cheers both God and man" points at the drink offering of Numbers 15:5 as well as the table.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
But lest I should appear to some to be sophistical, and to conjecture these things from mere probabilities, and to babble, I will bring forward to you, O virgins, from the Old Testament, written prophecy from the book of Judges, to show that I speak the truth, where the future reign of chastity was already clearly foretold.…Now it is clear that these things are not said of trees growing out of the earth. Inanimate trees cannot be assembled in council to choose a king since they are firmly fixed to the earth by deep roots.
And no one has been so illiterate as to think that similar fables of Aesop, related for the same purpose, ought to be called lies. But also in the sacred writings such passages are found, as in the book of Judges the trees look for a king to rule over them and speak to the olive and the fig and the vine and the bramble. Surely, all this is invented in order that we may reach the matter intended by means of a narrative [that is] fictitious, to be sure, but bearing a true and not a false signification.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Fig-tree - Gideon refused this honour, both for himself, and for his sons; and the sons of Gideon, whom Abimelech had slain, upon pretense of their affecting the kingdom, were as far from such thoughts as their father.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ | vaiyomeru | and they said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| הָעֵצִ֖ים | haetzim | the trees | H6086 → | 328 times |
| לַתְּאֵנָ֑ה | lateenah | to the fig tree | H8384 → | |
| לְכִי־ | lekhi- | come | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| אַ֖תְּ | ʾat | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| מָלְכִ֥י | malekhi | reign | H4427 → | 348 times |
| עָלֵֽינוּ׃ | ʾaleinu | over us | H5921 → | 5755 times |
וַיֹּאמְר֥וּand they said
vaiyomeruH559 →5305 times
הָעֵצִ֖יםthe trees
haetzimH6086 →328 times
לַתְּאֵנָ֑הto the fig tree
lateenahH8384 →
לְכִי־come
lekhi-H1980 →1546 times
אַ֖תְּyou
ʾatH859 →1094 times
מָלְכִ֥יreign
malekhiH4427 →348 times
עָלֵֽינוּ׃over us
ʾaleinuH5921 →5755 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About Judges
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, Against Lying 13.28; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Methodius of Olympus, BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS 10.2.