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
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.”
2 tn Heb “to anoint [with oil] over them a king.”
3 tn Or “Rule over us!”