SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 13:9

13:9a

If it bears fruit next year, fine: The gardener was implying that he would not cut the tree down if it produced figs the next year.

fine: The Berean Standard Bible has not translated this from any Greek word but has supplied it to make a natural English sentence. Other possibilities of phrases to supply include:

so much the better (Good News Translation)
-or-
well and good (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
it can continue to live

In some languages it may not be necessary to supply an expression such as “fine.” For example:

it may bear fruit next year (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
maybe that will help it to produce figs next year (Translator’s Reference Translation)

13:9b

But if not: The phrase But if not means “If it does not bear figs next year.”

you can cut it down: The gardener agreed with the owner that the tree should be cut down if it did not bear fruit. He was not telling the owner to cut it down himself. He was advising the owner, and he, the gardener, would probably be the one who would actually cut it down.

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments