Judges 9:15, commentary and pictures

Jotham spoke this parable to rebuke the men of Shechem for choosing Abimelech as king after he had slain Gideon's sons to make himself ruler and gathered vain followers about him. The bramble is a fitting picture of Abimelech as a worthless, grasping and cruel ruler who eagerly took the honor the fruitful trees refused, whose offer of shelter in his shadow is false security and whose threat of fire devouring the cedars is the mutual destruction he would bring upon himself and the chief men who made him king. The story is a fable in which trees hold council and speak and the bramble answers, a personification giving speech and reason to lifeless things to teach moral truth about kingship, and it never happened literally. Its imagined speech does not prove that trees are conscious or can think and speak, since hearers understand the figurative form and receive no false impression about plants. Those doing valuable work for the Lord have no desire to rule over their brethren, so ambition to exalt self proves unfitness to rule, while unlike the trees men can truly choose and are accountable to God for their choice, and rivalry after the pattern of the bramble is unprofitable and ends in destruction.

Parable Setting and Meaning

The bramble's speech belongs to Jotham's parable in Judges 9:8-15, in which the trees seek a king, and Jotham applies it to rebuke the men of Shechem for choosing Abimelech as king, the bramble's offer of protection and its threat against the cedars forming part of the graphic word picture.
In that history Abimelech was the son of Gideon's maid, who caused Gideon's sons to be slain in order that he himself might become ruler of Israel.
He gathered vain and light followers about him, and afterward Shechem was utterly destroyed by him.

The bramble is a fitting symbol of Abimelech as a worthless, grasping, cruel and unfit ruler chosen by the men of Shechem, who readily accepted the kingship the useful trees had refused.
He grasped for honor and destroyed those better than himself, and unlike the vine and the olive he offers no good fruit.

The bramble's condition that the trees come and put their trust in its shadow portrays the false security of accepting such a ruler, accepting his rule on condition of trusting his shelter.
Its threat that fire would come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon expresses the destruction Abimelech would bring upon those who opposed him, which Jotham prophesied would come between Abimelech and the chief men of Shechem who had made him king.
The whole episode shows the degeneration of the family of Gideon after the triumphs God wrought through him, caused by trusting in things which are seen instead of in the power that is unseen.

Fictive Form and Personification

Judges 9:15 belongs to an apologue or fable, a story of imagined actions and speech by inanimate things that conveys a moral truth in a striking manner, here about the work of kings. The speaking bramble addressing the trees is an impossible action that marks the form, with inanimate things represented as talking and choosing a king. It stands as one of two such fictitious parables about trees and kingship, the other being in Ezekiel 17:2-8.

The trees holding a council, speaking, making speeches, holding an election and choosing a king, and the bramble answering and offering to rule and proposing trust in its shade, are fictitious and imaginary rather than a literal account. The trees did not actually talk, yet the account can state without qualification that they spoke because listeners understand the figurative form. A parable may therefore give imagined characters powers and actions they do not naturally possess without making the point false.

The device is personification, in which trees and a bramble are represented as speaking, reasoning and acting like people. It gives to inanimate beings without life or voice the sentiments, language and actions of rational beings, as when the bramble is shown offering to rule and warning that fire will consume the cedars if refused, and when the trees hold an election and make speeches though they have no life or voice. The imagined speech does not prove that trees are conscious, can think or speak, or possess human attributes. The talking trees and talking bramble are a figurative device and not evidence that trees can speak, and the speaking bramble is not meant to create a false impression about what plants can do.

Doctrine and Moral Application

The bramble speaking to the trees about being made king and about putting trust in its shadow is personification, the giving to an inanimate being the sentiments and language of a rational being. The trees holding an election and making speeches though they have no life or voice proves that lifeless things are made to speak and act as though alive. The dead being made to speak and act as though alive is the same figure.

The trees choosing a king in a fable shows by contrast that trees do not actually elect rulers, while human beings can choose and are called by God to do so. This affirms human freedom of choice and accountability, rather than explaining the other details of the fable.

The bramble accepting rule over the trees on condition that they trust its shelter, while threatening destruction if they do not, marks an unfit ruler chosen by the men of Shechem. That ruler had caused his brothers to be slain and had gathered vain and light followers. Those doing valuable work for the Lord have no desire to rule over their brethren, and ambition to exalt oneself over others shows lack of qualification for rulership.

The bramble illustrates rivalry that is unprofitable, for unlike the vine and the olive it offers no good fruit, and its challenge ends in destruction. Striving to bear better fruit is therefore to be distinguished from competing to be the most useless.