If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’ ”
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and if it beare not then after that cut it doune.
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And if it beare fruite, well: if not, then after thou shalt cut it downe.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Luke 13:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 15:2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
- Hebrews 6:8 but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
- Ezra 9:14-15 shall we again break your commandments, and join ourselves with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant, nor any to escape? Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”
- Psalms 69:22-28 Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent. Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,
- Daniel 9:5-8 we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances. We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. “Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you. Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
- Revelation 16:5-7 I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are righteous, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you have judged these things. For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.” I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.”
- Revelation 15:3-4 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations. Who wouldn’t fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if…
9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
Ver. 9. Then after that thou shalt cut it down] The fig tree, they say, if it bear not the fourth year after it is planted, will never bear at all. If good be not done at first coming of the gospel to any place, seldom is any good ever done there.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And if it bear fruit, well,.... If hereby barren…
And if it bear fruit, well,.... If hereby barren professors, as the Jews, become fruitful, it is well, a good thing is done; it is well for themselves, they shall eat the fruit of their doings; it is well for the churches where they are, for good works are profitable to men; and it is well for the owner of the vineyard, and the dresser of it too, for when Christ has his fruit from his churches, his ministers have theirs also:
and if not, then
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after that; "for the time to come", as the Vulgate Latin; or "year following", as the Persic version renders it:
thou shall cut it down; do with it as thou pleasest, nothing more will be said or pleaded in its behalf; full consent shall be given, and no more intercession used: any trees might not be cut down, only barren ones; there is a law in Deu 20:19 about cutting down trees, and which the Jews explain thus (m);
"they may not cut down trees for meat without the city, nor withhold from them the course of water, that so they may become dry; as it is said, "thou shall not destroy the trees"; and whoever cuts any down is to be beaten, and not in a siege only, but in any place: whoever cuts down a tree for meat, by way of destroying it, is to be beaten; but they may cut it down if it hurts other trees, or because it hurts in the field others, or because its price is dear; the law does not forbid, but by way of destroying. Every barren tree it is lawful to cut down, even though a man hath no need of it; and so a tree for meat, which does hurt, and does not produce but little fruit, and it is not worth while to labour about it, it is lawful to cut it down: and how much may an olive tree produce, and it may not be cut down? the fourth part of a "Kab" of olives; and a palm tree which yields a "Kab" of dates, may not be cut down.''
Much such a parable as this is formed by the Jews, upon Moses's intercession for the people of Israel (n).
"Says R. Abin, in the name of R. Simeon ben Josedech, a parable, to what is it like? to a king that hath an uncultivated field; he says to his gardener, go and manure it, and make it a vineyard: the gardener went and manured that field, and planted it a vineyard; the vineyard grew, and produced wine, and it turned to vinegar; when the king saw that the wine turned to vinegar, he said to the gardener, go, , "and cut it down", why should I seek after a vineyard that brings forth that which is sour? the gardener replied, my lord, the king, what expense hast thou been at with this vineyard before it was raised? and now thou seekest to cut it down; and shouldst thou say because its wine turns sour; the reason is, because it is young, therefore its wine turns sour, and it does not produce good wine: so when Israel did that work (of the golden calf), the holy blessed God sought to consume them; said Moses, Lord of the world, hast thou not brought them out of Egypt from a place of idolatry, and now they are young, or children, as it is said, Hos 11:1 wait a little for them, and go with them, and they will do good works in thy presence.''
(m) Maimon. Hilch. Melacim, c. 6. sect. 8, 9. (n) Shemot Rabba, sect. 43. fol. 141. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And if happily it bear fruit. It is a…
And if happily it bear fruit. It is a way of speaking, when a sentence is left imperfect; yet what is not expressed, may be easily understood; as here we may understand, well and good, or the like. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain if . . . fruit, well--Genuine repentance, however late,…
if . . . fruit, well--Genuine repentance, however late, avails to save (Luk 23:42-43).
after that, &c.--The final perdition of such as, after the utmost limits of reasonable forbearance, are found fruitless, will be pre-eminently and confessedly just (Pro 1:24-31; Eze 24:13).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. And if… and if not—Upon these two ifs…
9. And if… and if not—Upon these two ifs hangs eternity. God may surround and ply him with means; but he leaves it at the last to the man himself to decide, by his own free will, between these two ifs. If God has indeed predetermined the matter, if the barrenness of the tree is the secured consequent of his own previous decree, then the events of the entire parable become a farce, and the lesson becomes an enigma.
Cut it down— The echo of the owner’s words in Luk_13:7. Cut it down, says divine justice; and in due time, still more fatally, Cut it down, responds divine mercy. The nation and the man may, like Jerusalem after the crucifixion, survive a few abandoned years after the sentence has gone forth Cut it down But the day of doom without mercy at last arrives, a type and prelude of a more terrible wrath in the world of retribution.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. if it bear fruit, well] The ‘well’ is…
9. if it bear fruit, well] The ‘well’ is not in the original, the idiom being a common but striking aposiopesis: i.e. the conclusion of the sentence is left to the speaker’s imagination. The phrase implies, If, as is at least possible, it bears fruit; but if not, as thou supposest, then, &c.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) And if it bear fruit.—Some of the better…
(9) And if it bear fruit.—Some of the better MSS. have, if it bear fruit in the time to come . . . With either reading the sentence is elliptical, and the insertion of “well,” as in the English, is needed to convey its meaning.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 13:9 cut it down: A stump or fallen tree…
13:9 cut it down: A stump or fallen tree was an image of judgment or destruction (cp. 3:9; see also Isa 6:13; 10:34; 11:1; Jer 46:22; Dan 4:23; Matt 3:10; 7:19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.