Luke 13:7

13:7 So ¹  he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For ²  three years ³  now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it ⁴  I find none. Cut ⁵  it down! Why ⁶  should it continue to deplete ⁷  the soil?’

Luke 13:9

13:9 Then if ⁸  it bears fruit next year, ⁹  very well, ¹⁰  but if ¹¹  not, you can cut it down.’”

Luke 23:29-31

23:29 For this is certain: ¹²  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ¹³  23:30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ¹⁴  ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ¹⁵  23:31 For if such things are done ¹⁶  when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 10:33-34

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹⁸ 

The tallest trees ¹⁹  will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

10:34 The thickets of the forest will be chopped down with an ax,

and mighty Lebanon will fall. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 15:2-4

15:2 “Son of man, of all the woody branches among the trees of the forest, what happens to the wood of the vine? ²¹  15:3 Can wood be taken from it to make anything useful? Or can anyone make a peg from it to hang things on? 15:4 No! ²²  It is thrown in the fire for fuel; when the fire has burned up both ends of it and it is charred in the middle, will it be useful for anything?

Ezekiel 31:18

31:18 Which of the trees of Eden was like you in majesty and loftiness? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword! This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Daniel 4:14

4:14 He called out loudly ²³  as follows: ²⁴ 

‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches!

Strip off its foliage

and scatter its fruit!

Let the animals flee from under it

and the birds from its branches!

Daniel 4:23

4:23 As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him’ –

Matthew 3:10

3:10 Even now the ax is laid at ²⁵  the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 7:19

7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

John 15:6

15:6 If anyone does not remain ²⁶  in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, ²⁷  and are burned up. ²⁸ 

Hebrews 10:28

10:28 Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death ²⁹  without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ³⁰ 

Hebrews 12:29

12:29 For our God is indeed a devouring fire. ³¹ 

[13:7]  ¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the man’s response as a result of the lack of figs in the preceding clause.

[13:7]  ² tn Grk “Behold, for.”

[13:7]  ³ sn The elapsed time could be six years total since planting, since often a fig was given three years before one even started to look for fruit. The point in any case is that enough time had been given to expect fruit.

[13:7]  ⁴ tn The phrase “each time I inspect it” is not in the Greek text but has been supplied to indicate the customary nature of the man’s search for fruit.

[13:7]  ⁵ tc ‡ Several witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ A L Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33 579 892 al lat co) have “therefore” (οὖν, oun) here. This conjunction has the effect of strengthening the logical connection with the preceding statement but also of reducing the rhetorical power and urgency of the imperative. In light of the slightly greater internal probability of adding a conjunction to an otherwise asyndetic sentence, as well as significant external support for the omission (א B D W ˹ Ï), the shorter reading appears to be more likely as the original wording here. NA²⁷ puts the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[13:7]  ⁶ tn Grk “Why indeed.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[13:7]  ⁷ sn Such fig trees would deplete the soil, robbing it of nutrients needed by other trees and plants.

[13:9]  ⁸ tn This is a third class condition in the Greek text. The conjunction καί (kai, a component of κάν [kan]) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[13:9]  ⁹ tn Grk “the coming [season].”

[13:9]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “very well” is supplied in the translation to complete the elided idea, but its absence is telling.

[13:9]  ¹¹ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text, showing which of the options is assumed.

[23:29]  ¹² tn Grk “For behold.”

[23:29]  ¹³ tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”

[23:30]  ¹⁴ sn The figure of crying out to the mountains ‘Fall on us!’ (appealing to creation itself to hide them from God’s wrath), means that a time will come when people will feel they are better off dead (Hos 10:8).

[23:30]  ¹⁵ sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).

[23:31]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “if they do such things.” The plural subject here is indefinite, so the active voice has been translated as a passive (see ExSyn 402).

[23:31]  ¹⁷ sn The figure of the green wood and the dry has been variously understood. Most likely the picture compares the judgment on Jesus as the green (living) wood to the worse judgment that will surely come for the dry (dead) wood of the nation.

[10:33]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.

[10:33]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[10:34]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text has, “and Lebanon, by/as [?] a mighty one, will fall.” The translation above takes the preposition בְּ (bet) prefixed to “mighty one” as indicating identity, “Lebanon, as a mighty one, will fall.” In this case “mighty one” describes Lebanon. (In Ezek 17:23 and Zech 11:2 the adjective is used of Lebanon’s cedars.) Another option is to take the preposition as indicating agency and interpret “mighty one” as a divine title (see Isa 33:21). One could then translate, “and Lebanon will fall by [the agency of] the Mighty One.”

[15:2]  ²¹ tn Most modern translations take the statement as a comparison (“how is vine wood better than any forest wood?”) based on the preposition מִן (min). But a comparison should have a word as an adjective or stative verb designating a quality, i.e., a word for “good/better” is lacking. The preposition is translated above in its partitive sense.

[15:4]  ²² tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws one’s attention to something. Sometimes it may be translated as a verb of perception; here it is treated as a particle that fits the context (so also in v. 5, but with a different English word).

[4:14]  ²³ tn Aram “in strength.”

[4:14]  ²⁴ tn Aram “and thus he was saying.”

[3:10]  ²⁵ sn Laid at the root. That is, placed and aimed, ready to begin cutting.

[15:6]  ²⁶ tn Or “reside.”

[15:6]  ²⁷ sn Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire. The author does not tell who it is who does the gathering and throwing into the fire. Although some claim that realized eschatology is so prevalent in the Fourth Gospel that no references to final eschatology appear at all, the fate of these branches seems to point to the opposite. The imagery is almost certainly that of eschatological judgment, and recalls some of the OT vine imagery which involves divine rejection and judgment of disobedient Israel (Ezek 15:4-6, 19:12).

[15:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

[10:28]  ²⁹ tn Grk “dies.”

[10:28]  ³⁰ sn An allusion to Deut 17:6.

[12:29]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Deut 4:24; 9:3.