And the trees said to the fig tree: Because the olive tree refuses, the trees turn to the fig tree. And is a rather weak rendering of the Hebrew waw conjunction here. In this literary genre a connector such as “So” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) would be more appropriate. The fig tree, like the olive tree, plays an important part of the life in Israel and is important part of the diet. Its fresh fruit is appreciated for its sweetness, but it can also be easily dried and preserved. The large leaves of the fig tree are also often used to wrap things. Fig trees may not be known in the target culture, but since they play such an important role in biblical texts, some equivalent must be found. A transliterated expression such as “figi-tree” would be better in this context of a fable than a phrase such as “tree that produces sweet fruits called ‘figs.’ ” Explanations can be given in the glossary. In some parts of Africa there are trees that resemble fig trees, but such equivalents should only be used where such trees are known to produce edible sweet fruit.

Come you, and reign over us: This request to the fig tree is similar to the one to the olive tree. Here the fig tree is addressed more directly with Come you, which is slightly unnatural in English. In Hebrew the pronoun for you is emphatic. For reign over us, see verse 9.8. This sentence may be rendered “You come be our king,” “Come, you reign over us,” or even, “You! You come and be our king.”

A translation model for this verse is:

• So the trees turned to Fig Tree and said, ‘You! Come be our king.’

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .