Bramble

Bramble translates the Hebrew atad in Judges 9:14–15 and Psalm 58:9, referring to a thorny shrub of the buckthorn family (Rhamnus species) common in Palestine. In Jotham's fable (Judg. 9:7–15)—the oldest fable in the Bible—the trees seek a king and are rejected by the olive, fig, and vine in succession until they turn to the bramble, which accepts the kingship with a threat: if the trees acted in good faith, let them take shelter in its shade; if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. The fable is a pointed satire on Abimelech's kingship and the folly of those who chose him.

The bramble appears elsewhere as a symbol of desolation and wilderness (Isa. 34:13) and of the painful results of wickedness. The contrast between thorns and briers on the one hand and the fruit-bearing vine and fig tree on the other is a recurring biblical motif for distinguishing the life that flourishes under covenant blessing from the barren desolation of judgment (Isa. 5:6; 55:13; Matt. 7:16).