The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over
them
This is an apologue or fable, and a very fine and beautiful one;
it is fitly expressed to answer the design, and the most ancient
of the kind, being made seven hundred years before the times of
Aesop, so famous for his fables, and exceeds anything written by
him. By the trees are meant the people of Israel in general, and
the Shechemites in particular, who had been for some time very
desirous of a king, but could not persuade any of their great and
good men to accept of that office:
and they said unto the olive tree, reign thou over
us;
a fit emblem of a good man, endowed with excellent virtues and
qualifications for good, as David king of Israel, who is compared
to such a tree, ( Psalms 52:8 ) , Jarchi
applies this to Othniel the first judge; but it may be better
applied to Gideon, an excellent good man, full of fruits of
righteousness, and eminently useful, and to whom kingly
government was offered, and was refused by him; and the men of
Shechem could scarcely fail of thinking of him, and applying it
to him, as Jotham was delivering his fable.