Judges 9:14

Then said all the trees unto the bramble,.... Perceiving they could not prevail upon any of the useful and fruitful trees to take the government of them, they unite in a request to a bramble, scarce

Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. Bramble [Rhamnus paliurus, Linnaeus] - southern buckthorn.

The bramble, or thorn; a mean, and barren, and hurtful tree, fitly representing Abimelech, the son of a concubine, and a person of small use, and great cruelty.

Judges 9:14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, [and] reign over us.Ver. 14. Then said all the trees unto the bramble.] Or, Thistle, or teazle; which is not a tree but a shrub, prickly, barren, base, abject, good-for-nothing but to stop gaps, or kindle a fire. Abimelech was a right bramble indeed, who grew in the base hedgerow of a concubine, and scratched and drew blood to purpose, when once he had scrambled up to be king of Israel.

(14) Unto the bramble.—Despairing of their best, they avail themselves of the unscrupulous ambition of their worst. The bramble—atad—is rather the rhamnus, or buckthorn, which Dioscorides calls the Cartha ginian atadin. There seems to be an echo of this fable in Æsop’s fable of the fox and the thorn, where the fox is dreadfully rent by taking hold of the thorn to save himself from a fall, and the thorn asks him what else he could expect. Reign over us.—They seem to address the thorn in a less ceremonious imperative—not mâlekah, as to the olive, or mûlekî, as to the fig-tree and vine, but a mere blunt melâk!

Verse 14. Then said all the trees unto the bramble] The word אטד atad, which we translate bramble, is supposed to mean the rhamnus, which is the largest of thorns, producing dreadful spikes, similar to darts. See Theodoret on Psalms 58:10. There is much of the moral of this fable contained in the different kinds of trees mentioned. 1. The olive; the most profitable tree to its owner, having few equals either for food or medicine. 2. The fig tree; one of the most fruitful of trees, and yielding one of the most delicious fruits, and superior to all others for sweetness. 3. The vine, which alone yields a liquor that, when properly prepared, and taken in strict moderation, is friendly both to the body and mind of man, having a most direct tendency to invigorate both. 4. The bramble or thorn, which, however useful as a hedge, is dangerous to come near; and is here the emblem of an impious, cruel, and oppressive king. As the olive, fig, and vine, are said in this fable to refuse the royalty, because in consequence, they intimate, they should lose their own privileges, we learn that to be invested with power for the public good can be no privilege to the sovereign. If he discharge the office faithfully, it will plant his pillow with thorns, fill his soul with anxious cares, rob him of rest and quiet, and, in a word, will be to him a source of distress and misery. All this is represented here under the emblem of the trees losing their fatness, their sweetness and good fruits, and their cheering influence. In short, we see from this most sensible fable that the beneficent, benevolent, and highly illuminated mind, is ever averse from the love of power; and that those who do seek it are the thoughtless, the vain, the ambitious, and those who wish for power merely for the purpose of self-gratification; persons who have neither the disposition nor the knowledge to use power for the advantage of the community; and who, while they boast great things, and make great pretensions and promises, are the tyrants of the people, and often through their ambition, like the bramble in the fable kindle a flame of foreign or domestic war, in which their subjects are consumed. The sleepless nights and corroding cares of sovereignty, are most forcibly described by a poet of our own, whose equal in describing the inward workings of the human heart, in all varieties of character and circumstances, has never appeared either in ancient or modern times. Hear what he puts in the mouth of two of his care-worn kings: - "How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep? - Sleep, gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

14. the bramble] LXX, Vulgate rhamnus, the common, worthless thornbush, the very opposite of the noble trees just mentioned.

14. All the trees — Not one of all the trees was willing to be king, but all were willing that the bramble should rule over them — a stinging reflection on the Shechemites.