Discovery BoxLuke 13:8 
Context13:8 But the worker 1 answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer 2 on it.
Luke 16:3
Context16:3 Then 3 the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position 4 away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, 5 and I’m too ashamed 6 to beg.
1 tn Grk “he”; the referent (the worker who tended the vineyard) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Grk “toss manure [on it].” This is a reference to manure used as fertilizer.
3 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events in the parable.
4 tn Grk “the stewardship,” “the management.”
5 tn Here “dig” could refer (1) to excavation (“dig ditches,” L&N 19.55) or (2) to agricultural labor (“work the soil,” L&N 43.3). In either case this was labor performed by the uneducated, so it would be an insult as a job for a manager.
6 tn Grk “I do not have strength to dig; I am ashamed to beg.”
sn To beg would represent a real lowering of status for the manager, because many of those whom he had formerly collected debts from, he would now be forced to beg from.
