Let fire come out— This is not an execratory, but a prophetical expression, a prediction of what would follow from their cruel and injurious conduct. Mr. Maundrell gives an account of Beer, to which Jotham fled in his journey to Aleppo, p. 64. He says, that it enjoys a very pleasant situation on an easy declivity, fronting Southward. At the bottom of the hill it has a fountain of excellent water, from which it has its name. At the upper side are the remains of an old church built by the empress Helena.
REFLECTIONS.—Jotham alone, of all the sons of Gideon, escaped; and on a day when the men of Shechem were assembled, perhaps the very day that Abimelech is elected, in the plain, from the top of mount Gerizim, whence he could be heard, and yet escape if they attempted to seize him, he gives the Shechemites a reproof for their baseness, and a warning of the consequences of their folly; and this he couches under an elegant fable, the contrivance of which is as beautiful as the application was apposite.
1. The fable itself. The trees are represented as choosing a king; the olive, vine, and fig-tree, to whom the sovereignty is offered, decline the honour; while the wretched bramble grasps at the dominion, vaunts the protection he would give them, and threatens to fire the cedars which should dare refuse allegiance and submission. In the one, we see the modesty of Gideon's sons; in the other, the vanity of Abimelech, and the scourge they might expect from that fiery bramble. Note; (1.) The high office which the proud man covets the humble and wise decline, knowing its weight. (2.) They who are elected to public service must forego all private advantages, as the trees in this fable intimate. (3.) None so insolent and overbearing as a low person raised above his station.
2. He makes a pathetic application to the people; reminds them of the services of his father, upbraids them with their ingratitude to their benefactor's family, appeals to their consciences for the baseness of their proceedings, and to the issue of them for a proof of their wickedness; therein prophetically warning them of the mutual miseries and contentions which would ensue from their present choice. Note; (1.)
Ungrateful man is sadly apt to forget his generous benefactors. (2.) When we see men rejoice in prosperous wickedness, let us mark their end; and we shall usually be convinced, here below, that there is a God that judgeth the earth.
3. Jotham flies hereupon from the resentment of Abimelech, and finds a safe retreat to Beer; where, if he had not Abimelech's greatness, he hath better, a good conscience; and his low estate is his security.