Discovery BoxJudges 9:8 
Context9:8 “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
Judges 9:15
Context9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose 4 me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! 5 Otherwise 6 may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’
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!”
4 tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”
5 tn Heb “in my shade.”
6 tn Heb “If not.”
