Discovery BoxJudges 9:8-9 
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 9:9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘I am not going to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and men, just to sway above the other trees!’ 4
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 “Should I stop my abundance, with which they honor gods and men, and go to sway over the trees?” The negative sentence in the translation reflects the force of the rhetorical question.
