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This article seeks to revisit the significance and social function of the so-called “Jotham’s fable of the trees” (Judges 9:8-15). This text still remains a veritable crux interpretum, as shown in the short description of the status quaestionis. A systematic analysis of each of the elements of this short story will focus our attention on the possible implications of identifying the אָטָד with a tree of the Ziziphus species. Our suggestion is that satire of the monarchical regime is not the sole intention behind the fable, but that the “king-ʾāṭād” is in fact a figure of the mission that such an institution can assume when a nation is confronted with periods and situations of distress.