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Commentary on Judges 9 verses 7–21
We have here the only testimony that appears to have been borne against the wicked confederacy of Abimelech and the men of Shechem. It was a sign they had provoked God to depart from them that neither any prophet was sent nor any remarkable judgment, to awaken this stupid people, and to stop the progress of this threatening mischief. Only Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, who by a special providence escaped the common ruin of his family (Jdg 9:5), dealt plainly with the Shechemites, and his speech, which is here recorded, shows him to have been a man of such great ingenuity and wisdom, and really such an accomplished gentleman, that we cannot but the more lament the fall of Gideon's sons. Jotham did not go about to raise an army out of the other cities of Israel (in which, one would think, he might have made a good interest for his father's sake), to avenge his brethren's death, much less to set up himself in competition with Abimelech, so groundless was the usurper's suggestion that the sons of Gideon aimed at dominion (Jdg 9:2); but he contents himself with giving a faithful reproof to the Shechemites, and fair warning of the fatal consequences. He got an opportunity of speaking to them from the top of Mount Gerizim, the mount of blessings, at the foot of which probably the Shechemites were, upon some occasion or other, gathered together (Josephus says, solemnizing a festival), and it seems they were willing to hear what he had to say.
I. His preface is very serious: "Hearken unto me, you men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you, Jdg 9:7. As ever you hope to obtain God's favour, and to be accepted of him, give me a patient and impartial hearing." Note, Those who expect God to hear their prayers must be willing to hear reason, to hear a faithful reproof, and to hear the complaints and appeals of wronged innocency. If we turn away our ear from hearing the law, our prayer will be an abomination, Pro 28:9.
II. His parable is very ingenious - that when the trees were disposed to choose a king the government was offered to those valuable trees the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, but they refused it, choosing rather to serve than rule, to do good than bear sway. But the same tender being made to the bramble he accepted it with vain-glorious exultation. The way of instruction by parables is an ancient way, and very useful, especially to give reproofs by.
1.He hereby applauds the generous modesty of Gideon, and the other judges who were before him, and perhaps of the sons of Gideon, who had declined accepting the state and power of kings when they might have had them, and likewise shows that it is in general the temper of all wise and good men to decline preferment and to choose rather to be useful than to be great. (1.) There was no occasion at all for the trees to choose a king; they are all the trees of the Lord which he has planted (Psa 104:16) and which therefore he will protect. Nor was there any occasion for Israel to talk of setting a king over them; for the Lord was their king. (2.) When they had it in their thoughts to choose a king they did not offer the government to the stately cedar, or the lofty pine, which are only for show and shade, and not otherwise useful till they are cut down, but to the fruit-trees, the vine and the olive. Those that bear fruit for the public good are justly respected and honoured by all that are wise more than those that affect to make a figure. For a good useful man some would even dare to die. (3.) The reason which all these fruit-trees gave for their refusal was much the same. The olive pleads (Jdg 9:9), Should I leave my wine, wherewith both God and man are served and honoured? for oil and wine were used both at God's altars and at men's tables. And shall I leave my sweetness, saith the fig-tree, and my good fruit (Jdg 9:11), and go to be promoted over the trees? or, as the margin reads it, go up and down for the trees? It is intimated, [1.] That government involves a man in a great deal both of toil and care; he that is promoted over the trees must go up and down for them, and make himself a perfect drudge to business. [2.] That those who are preferred to places of public trust and power must resolve to forego all their private interests and advantages, and sacrifice them to the good of the community. The fig-tree must lose its sweetness, its sweet retirement, sweet repose, and sweet conversation and contemplation, if it go to be promoted over the trees, and must undergo a constant fatigue. [3.] That those who are advanced to honour and dignity are in great danger of losing their fatness and fruitfulness. Preferment is apt to make men proud and slothful, and thus spoil their usefulness, with which in a lower sphere they honoured God and man, for which reason those that desire to do good are afraid of being too great.
2.He hereby exposes the ridiculous ambition of Abimelech, whom he compares to the bramble or thistle, Jdg 9:14. He supposes the trees to make their court to him: Come thou and reign over us, perhaps because he knew not that the first motion of Abimelech's preferment came from himself (as we found, Jdg 9:2), but thought the Shechemites had proposed it to him; however, supposing it so, his folly in accepting it deserved to be chastised. The bramble is a worthless plant, not to be numbered among the trees, useless and fruitless, nay, hurtful and vexatious, scratching and tearing, and doing mischief; it began with the curse, and its end is to be burned. Such a one was Abimelech, and yet chosen to the government by the trees, by all the trees; this election seems to have been more unanimous than any of the others. Let us not think it strange if we see folly set in great dignity (Ecc 10:6), and the vilest men exalted (Psa 12:8), and men blind to their own interest in the choice of their guides. The bramble, being chosen to the government, takes no time to consider whether he should accept it or no, but immediately, as if he had been born and bred to dominion, hectors, and assures them they shall find him as he found them. See what great swelling words of vanity he speaks (Jdg 9:15), what promises he makes to his faithful subjects: Let them come and trust in my shadow: a goodly shadow to trust in! How unlike to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, which a good magistrate is compared to! Isa 32:2. Trust in his shadow! - more likely to be scratched if they came near him - more likely to be injured by him than benefited. Thus men boast of a false gift. Yet he threatens with as much confidence as he promises: If you be not faithful, let fire come out of the bramble (a very unlikely thing to emit fire) and devour the cedars of Lebanon - more likely to catch fire, and be itself devoured.
III. His application is very close and plain. In it, 1. He reminds them of the many good services his father had done for them, Jdg 9:17. He fought their battles, at the hazard of his own life, and to their unspeakable advantage. It was a shame that they needed to be put in mind of this. 2. He aggravates their unkindness to his father's family. They had not done to him according to the deserving of his hands, Jdg 9:16. Great merits often meet with very ill returns. especially to posterity, when the benefactor if forgotten, as Joseph was among the Egyptians. Gideon had left many sons that were an honour to his name and family, and these they had barbarously murdered; one son he had left that was the blemish of his name and family, for he was the son of his maid-servant, whom all that had any respect to Gideon's honour would endeavour to conceal, yet him they made their king. In both they put the utmost contempt imaginable upon Gideon. 3. He leaves it to the event to determine whether they had done well, whereby he lodges the appeal with the divine providence. (1.) If they prospered long in this villany, he would give them leave to say they had done well, Jdg 9:19. "If your conduct towards the house of Gideon be such as can be justified at any bar of justice, honour, or conscience, much good may it do you with your new king." But, (2.) If they had, as he was sure they had, dealt basely and wickedly in this matter, let them never expect to prosper, Jdg 9:20. Abimelech and the Shechemites, that had strengthened one another's hands in this villany, would certainly be a plague and ruin one to another. Let none expect to do ill and fare well.
Jotham, having given them this admonition, made a shift to escape with his life, Jdg 9:21. Either they could not reach him or they were so far convinced that they would not add the guilt of his blood to all the rest. But, for fear of Abimelech, he lived in exile, in some remote obscure place. Those whose extraction and education are ever so high know not to what difficulties and straits they may be reduced.
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. But on the whole these things are narrated concerning souls that—before the incarnation of Christ—luxuriated too deeply in transgressions, who approach God as beggars asking for mercy so that they may be governed by his pity and compassion. This mercy is what Scripture expresses by the figure of the olive, because oil is of great advantage to our bodies: it takes away our fatigue and ailments and offers light. For all lamplight increases when nourished by oil. So also God’s mercies entirely dispel death, assist the human race and nourish the light of the heart. Consider the laws [which were in effect] from the first created man successively on to Christ. Weren’t they imaginatively set forth in these words by the Scripture, in opposition to which the devil has deceived humanity? In it the fig tree has been associated with the command given to the man in paradise, because, when he was deceived, he covered his nakedness with the leaves of a fig tree; and the vine [has been related] to the instruction given to Noah at the time of the deluge, because he was mocked when overpowered by wine. The olive signifies the law given to Moses in the desert, because the prophetic grace, the holy oil, had failed from their inheritance when they broke the law. Lastly, the bramble aptly refers to the law that was given to the apostles for the salvation of the world: by their instruction we have been taught virginity, which is the only figure that the devil has not been able to make into a deceptive image. For this reason, also, the four Gospels have been given, because God has four times given the gospel to the human race and has instructed them by four laws, the times of which are clearly known by the diversity of the fruits. For the fig tree, on account of its sweetness and richness, represents the delights of man, which he had in paradise before the fall. Indeed, as we shall afterwards show, the Holy Spirit frequently takes the fruit of the fig tree as an emblem of goodness. But the vine, on account of the gladness produced by wine and the joy of those who were saved from wrath and from the deluge, signifies the change produced from fear and anxiety into joy. Moreover, the olive, on account of the oil that it produces, indicates the compassion of God, who again, after the deluge, bore patiently when people turned aside to ungodliness, so that he gave them the law and manifested himself to some, and nourished by oil the light of virtue, which is now almost extinguished.
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.
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SUMMARY
Judges 9:12 is a pivotal line within Jotham's Fable, a powerful allegory delivered by Gideon's youngest son, Jotham, to the citizens of Shechem. This verse captures the moment when the personified trees, having been rejected by the noble olive and fig trees, turn to the vine, inviting it to abandon its fruitful purpose for the burden of kingship. It highlights the trees' desperate search for a ruler and foreshadows the eventual disastrous choice of the bramble, symbolizing the folly of choosing a leader based on ambition rather than intrinsic worth and selfless service, a direct critique of Shechem's ill-fated coronation of Abimelech.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jotham's Fable, and specifically Judges 9:12 within it, is a profound example of Allegory and Personification. The entire narrative functions as a meticulously crafted allegory, where the characters and events within the story (trees seeking a king) directly correspond to the contemporary real-world situation (Shechem's misguided choice of Abimelech as king). The Personification of the various trees—the olive, fig, vine, and bramble—allows Jotham to deliver a scathing critique of the political climate indirectly, yet with devastating clarity. Each tree symbolizes a distinct type of leader or quality: the olive, fig, and vine represent productive, beneficial entities that prioritize their inherent, God-given purpose over the pursuit of worldly power, while the bramble symbolizes a useless, destructive, and self-serving leader. The powerful Irony is palpable as the truly productive and valuable trees refuse the crown, only for the worthless and dangerous bramble to eagerly accept, thereby foreshadowing the tragic and volatile reign of Abimelech. The fable also employs potent Foreshadowing, as the bramble's inherent nature—its capacity to offer only shade for those who seek refuge and fire for those who do not—and its hyperbolic threat to consume the "cedars of Lebanon" (a symbol of strength and nobility) clearly predict Abimelech's destructive reign and the ultimate downfall of Shechem.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Judges 9:12, situated within the profound allegorical framework of Jotham's Fable, offers a penetrating theological commentary on the nature of leadership and the inherent dangers of human ambition when divorced from divine wisdom. It subtly but powerfully critiques the human desire for earthly kingship, particularly when such a desire overlooks the true source of blessing, stability, and legitimate authority. The refusal of the vine, much like the olive and fig, to abandon its inherent purpose for the burden of ruling underscores a vital biblical principle: true value and lasting impact often lie in humble, faithful service and the diligent execution of one's God-given calling, rather than in the pursuit of power or worldly prestige. This narrative challenges its audience to critically examine the character and motivations of those they elevate to positions of authority, warning against leaders who offer only superficial promises and destructive outcomes, like the bramble, instead of genuine fruit, protection, and true benefit. It implicitly contrasts human attempts at self-governance and self-appointed rule with God's ultimate sovereignty, reminding us that the most effective and righteous leaders are those who recognize their primary calling to serve and produce, rather than to rule for their own aggrandizement.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Judges 9:12, as an integral part of Jotham's Fable, presents a timeless and profound challenge to how we perceive and choose leadership, both in the grand societal arena and within the intimate spheres of our personal lives. The vine's refusal to reign, prioritizing its sacred purpose of yielding wine that "cheereth God and man," serves as a powerful and convicting reminder that true contribution and lasting impact often lie in faithfully executing our God-given callings and cultivating our unique gifts, rather than chasing positions of power, prestige, or control. This narrative compels us to critically evaluate our own ambitions: are we seeking to "reign" in ways that might distract us from our core purpose, or are we content to be fruitful where God has planted us, trusting in His sovereign design for our lives? Furthermore, the fable's stark progression to the bramble's eager acceptance of kingship serves as a sobering warning about the inherent dangers of desperate or ill-considered leadership choices. It cultivates discernment, urging us to look beyond superficial charisma, empty promises, or the allure of quick solutions, and instead to assess the true character, genuine fruitfulness, and underlying intentions of those we empower, whether in our communities, our churches, our workplaces, or even the subtle influences we allow into our own hearts.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did the olive, fig, and vine all refuse the offer of kingship?
Answer: The olive, fig, and vine are all exceptionally productive, life-giving plants in the ancient Near East, symbolizing blessing, prosperity, and joy. Their consistent refusal to reign, as vividly portrayed in Judges 9:9, Judges 9:11, and Judges 9:13, highlights their unwavering commitment to their inherent purpose: producing oil, figs, and wine, respectively, which "cheereth God and man." They perceived the burden and demands of kingship as a significant distraction from their primary, valuable contributions. This allegorically reflects a deep biblical tension regarding human monarchy, suggesting that true value and lasting impact lie in fulfilling one's God-given role and providing genuine benefit, rather than seeking worldly authority that might compromise one's fruitfulness or lead to pride and corruption.
What does the vine's "wine, which cheereth God and man" mean?
Answer: This evocative phrase, found in the vine's response in Judges 9:13, refers to the dual significance of wine in ancient Israelite culture and worship. On one hand, wine was a staple beverage, bringing joy, refreshment, and celebration to people in their daily lives. On the other hand, it was a crucial component of religious offerings and libations presented to God (e.g., Numbers 15:7). Thus, "cheereth God and man" signifies that the vine's produce served both human enjoyment and divine worship. The vine's reluctance to abandon this dual, sacred purpose for the sake of ruling emphasizes the inherent sacredness and profound importance of its natural function, contrasting it sharply with the potentially profane and self-serving nature of human ambition for power.
How does Jotham's Fable relate to the broader theme of kingship in the Old Testament?
Answer: Jotham's Fable, particularly the repeated refusal of the fruitful trees to reign, serves as an early, profound, and often overlooked commentary on the complex concept of human kingship in Israel. It powerfully foreshadows the intricate and frequently problematic history of the monarchy. While God eventually permitted a human king for Israel in response to their persistent demand, as detailed in 1 Samuel 8, He also issued stern warnings about the burdens, potential for oppression, and spiritual dangers that a human king could introduce. The fable suggests that true authority, lasting blessing, and ultimate stability come from God alone and are best mediated through humble, faithful, and fruitful service, rather than through self-appointed or ambitious rule like Abimelech's. It establishes a foundational tension between the ideal of God's direct, benevolent rule and the inherent dangers of human leaders who might exploit their power for personal gain, a tension that profoundly shapes the narratives throughout the books of 1 Samuel and 1 Kings.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jotham's Fable, and specifically the vine's refusal to reign in Judges 9:12, finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment not in a simple rejection of kingship, but in the radical redefinition and perfect embodiment of it by Jesus Christ. Unlike the trees that refused to leave their fruitfulness for the burden of ruling, Jesus, the true Vine (John 15:1), embraced both ultimate kingship and ultimate service. He did not cling to His divine prerogatives or seek earthly power, but "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), ultimately laying down His life as the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). While the vine in the fable prioritized its "wine which cheereth God and man," Jesus is the source of the new wine of the covenant, His blood shed for the forgiveness of sins and the establishment of an eternal kingdom (Matthew 26:28). He is the King who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Thus, the fable's warning against self-serving rulers finds its perfect contrast in Christ, whose reign is characterized by humble sacrifice, abundant spiritual fruitfulness in His people, and the promise of eternal life for all who abide in Him (John 15:5).