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Wednesday, August 13th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

Contemporary English Version

Judges 9:10

Then they asked the fig tree, "Will you be our king?"

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Allegory;   Jotham;   Judge;   Parables;   Sarcasm;   Scofield Reference Index - Parables;   Thompson Chain Reference - Bible Stories for Children;   Children;   Fig-Trees;   Home;   Pleasant Sunday Afternoons;   Religion;   Sarcasm;   Stories for Children;   Trees;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Parables;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Jotham;   Parable;   Shechem;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Fig;   Jotham;   Parables;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Anthropomorphism;   Type, Typology;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Fable;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Baal (2);   Bramble;   Fable;   Old Testament;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Abimelech;   Bramble;   Fable;   Judges, Book of;   Rhetoric;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Government;   Israel;   Jotham (1);   Levi;   Ophrah;   Palestine;   Shalman;   Shechem;   Wisdom;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Fig-Tree ;   Tree (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Jotham ;   Shechem ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Chief parables and miracles in the bible;   Gerizim;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Fable;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Fig (tree);   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Fable;   Government of the Hebrews;   Parable;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Reign of the Judges;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Accommodation;   Fable;   Food;   Jotham;   Poetry, Hebrew;   Reign;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Allegory in the Old Testament;   Fig and Fig-Tree;   Poetry;   Satire;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Then the trees said to the fig tree,“Come and reign over us.”
Hebrew Names Version
The trees said to the fig tree, Come, and reign over us.
King James Version
And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
Lexham English Bible
Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You, come rule over us.'
English Standard Version
And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.'
New Century Version
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be king over us!'
New English Translation
"So the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king!'
Amplified Bible
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come and reign over us!'
New American Standard Bible
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You, come, reign over us!'
Geneva Bible (1587)
Then the trees sayde to the fig tree, Come thou, and be King ouer vs.
Legacy Standard Bible
But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
Complete Jewish Bible
So the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You, come and rule over us!'
Darby Translation
And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou, reign over us.
Easy-to-Read Version
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.'
George Lamsa Translation
And the trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us.
Good News Translation
Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king.'
Literal Translation
And the trees said to the fig, You come, reign over us.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then sayde the trees vnto the fygge tre: Come thou and be kynge ouer vs.
American Standard Version
And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
Bible in Basic English
Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king over us.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the trees sayd to the figge tree: Come thou, and be kyng ouer vs.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the trees said to the fig-tree: Come thou, and reign over us.
King James Version (1611)
And the trees said to the Figge tree, Come thou, and reigne ouer vs.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come, reign over us.
English Revised Version
And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
Berean Standard Bible
Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come and reign over us.'
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the trees seiden to the fige tree, Come thou, and take the rewme on vs.
Young's Literal Translation
And the trees say to the fig, Come thou, reign over us.
Update Bible Version
And the trees said to the fig-tree, You come, and reign over us.
Webster's Bible Translation
And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou, [and] reign over us.
World English Bible
The trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us.
New King James Version
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, "You come and reign over us!'
New Living Translation
"Then they said to the fig tree, ‘You be our king!'
New Life Bible
Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and rule over us!'
New Revised Standard
Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.'
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then said the trees unto the fig-tree, - Come! thou reign over us.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And the trees said to the fig tree: Come thou and reign over us.
Revised Standard Version
And the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come you, and reign over us.'
THE MESSAGE
The trees then said to Fig Tree, "You come and rule over us." But Fig Tree said to them, "Am I no longer good for making sweets, My mouthwatering sweet fruits, and to be demoted to waving over trees?"
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come, reign over us!'

Contextual Overview

7 Jotham heard what they were doing. So he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted down to the people who were there at the meeting: Leaders of Shechem, listen to me, and maybe God will listen to you. 8 Once the trees searched for someone to be king; they asked the olive tree, "Will you be our king?" 9 But the olive tree replied, "My oil brings honor to people and gods. I won't stop making oil, just to have my branches wave above the other trees." 10 Then they asked the fig tree, "Will you be our king?" 11 But the fig tree replied, "I won't stop growing my delicious fruit, just to have my branches wave above the other trees." 12 Next they asked the grape vine, "Will you be our king?" 13 But the grape vine replied, "My wine brings cheer to people and gods. I won't stop making wine, just to have my branches wave above the other trees." 14 Finally, they went to the thornbush and asked, "Will you be our king?" 15 The thornbush replied, "If you really want me to be your king, then come into my shade and I will protect you. But if you're deceiving me, I'll start a fire that will spread out and destroy the cedars of Lebanon." After Jotham had finished telling this story, he said: 16My father Gideon risked his life for you when he fought to rescue you from the Midianites. Did you reward Gideon by being kind to his family? No, you did not! You attacked his family and killed all seventy of his sons on that rock. And was it right to make Abimelech your king? He's merely the son of my father's slave girl. But just because he's your relative, you made him king of Shechem.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 2:30 - them

Cross-References

Genesis 8:1
God did not forget about Noah and the animals with him in the boat. So God made a wind blow, and the water started going down.
Genesis 9:1
God said to Noah and his sons: I am giving you my blessing. Have a lot of children and grandchildren, so people will live everywhere on this earth.
Genesis 9:5
I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.
Genesis 9:15
I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life.
Genesis 9:16
When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature.
Psalms 145:9
You are good to everyone, and you take care of all your creation.
Jonah 4:11
In that city of Nineveh there are more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot tell right from wrong, and many cattle are also there. Don't you think I should be concerned about that big city?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the trees said to the fig tree,.... Another useful and fruit bearing tree, and to which also good men are sometimes compared, see Song of Solomon 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This fable and that noted in the marginal reference are the only two of the kind found in Scripture. Somewhat different are the parables of the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 12:1-4; 2 Samuel 14:5-11; 1 Kings 20:39-40.

Judges 9:9

Honour God and man - Alluding to the constant use of oil in the meat-offerings Leviticus 2:1-16, and in the holy ointment Exodus 30:24-25. In like manner, the allusion in Judges 9:13 is to the drink-offerings of wine. See Leviticus 23:13; Numbers 15:10.

Judges 9:14

The bramble - Said to be the Rhamnus Paliurus of Linnaeus, otherwise called Spina-Christi, or Christ’s Thorn, a shrub with sharp thorns. The application is obvious. The noble Gideon and his worthy sons had declined the proffered kingdom. The vile, base-born Abimelech had accepted it, and his act would turn out to the mutual ruin of himself and his subjects.

Judges 9:15

If in truth - i. e. consistently with truth, honor, and uprightness, as explained in the interpretation in Judges 9:16, Judges 9:19.

Let fire come out ... - The propriety of the image is strictly preserved, for even the thorns of the worthless bramble might kindle a flame which would burn the stately cedars to the ground. See Psalms 58:9.

Judges 9:16-20

These verses contain the interpretation of the fable. In them Jotham points out the base ingratitude of the people in raising Abimelech upon the ruin of Gideon’s house, and foretells the retribution which would fall upon both parties.


 
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