ing told to Joatham, he went, and stood on the top of Mount
Garizim: and lifting up his voice, he cried, and said: Hear me, ye men
of Sichem, so may God hear you.

9:8. The trees went to anoint a king over them: and they said to the
olive tree: Reign thou over us.

9:9. And it answered: Can I leave my fatness, which both gods and men
make use of, to come to be promoted among the trees?

Both gods and men make use of... The olive tree is introduced, speaking
in this manner, because oil was used both in the worship of the true
God, and in that of the false gods, whom the Sichemites served.

9:10. And the trees said to the fig tree: Come thou and reign over us.

9:11. And it answered them: Can I leave my sweetness, and my delicious
fruits, and go to be promoted among the other trees?

9:12. And the trees said to the vine: Come thou and reign over us.

9:13. And it answered them: Can I forsake my wine, that cheereth God and
men, and be promoted among the other trees?

Cheereth God and men... Wine is here represented as agreeable to God,
because he had appointed it to be offered up with his sacrifices. But we
are not obliged to take these words, spoken by the trees, in Joatham's
parable, according to the strict literal sense: but only in a sense
accomodated to the design of the parable expressed in the conclusion of
it.

9:14. And all the trees said to the bramble: Come thou and reign over
us.

9:15. And it answered them: If, indeed, you mean to make me king, come
ye, and rest under my shadow: but if you mean it not, let fire come out
from the bramble, and devour the cedars of Libanus.

9:16. Now, therefore, if you have done well, and without sin, in
appointing Abimelech king over you, and have dealt well with Jerobaal,
and with his house, and have made a suitable return for the benefits of
him who fought for you,

9:17. And exposed his life to dangers, to deliver you from the hand of
Madian,

9:18. And you are now risen up against my father's house, and have
killed his sons, seventy men, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech,
the son of his handmaid, king over the inhabitants of Sichem, because he
is your brother:

9:19. If therefore you have dealt well, and without fault, with Jerobaal
and his house, rejoice ye, this day, in Abimelech, and may he rejoice in
you.

9:20. But if unjustly: let fire come out from him, and consume the
inhabitants of Sichem, and the town of Mello: and let fire come out from