Matthew 3:10

3:10 Even now the ax is laid at ¹  the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 6:30

6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ²  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ³  won’t he clothe you even more, ⁴  you people of little faith?

Matthew 23:4

23:4 They ⁵  tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them.

Matthew 25:29

25:29 For the one who has will be given more, ⁶  and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ⁷ 

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¹ sn Laid at the root. That is, placed and aimed, ready to begin cutting.

² tn Grk “grass of the field.”

³ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

sn The oven was most likely a rounded clay oven used for baking bread, which was heated by burning wood and dried grass.

⁴ sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.

⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁶ tn Grk “to everyone who has, he will be given more.”

sn The one who has will be given more. Faithfulness yields great reward (see Matt 13:12; also Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18, 19:26).

⁷ sn The one who has nothing has even what he seems to have taken from him, ending up with no reward at all (see also Luke 8:18). The exact force of this is left ambiguous, but there is no comfort here for those who are pictured by the third slave as being totally unmoved by the master. Though not an outright enemy, there is no relationship to the master either.