Any one refers to the people of that house or town mentioned later in the verse. A literal rendering of if any one will not receive you is misleading, for it may imply that if any one person in the entire house or town does not receive Jesus’ disciples, then they must leave. Therefore if any one will not is better phrased in English as “and if no one will” (Phillips; An American Translation “and where no one will”). One may then reorder the verse and translate “If no one in that house or town will welcome you … then leave it….”

For comments on the verb receive, see verse 40.

Listen to your words is translated “listen to you” by Good News Translation and An American Translation; New English Bible renders “listen to what you say,” while a number of other translations render “listen to what you have to say” (Phillips, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible).

Shake off the dust from your feet indicates an action of absolute rejection. Both Mark (6.11) and Luke (9.5) interpret the gesture for their readers: “as a testimony against them” (Good News Translation “That will be a warning to them!”). In Acts 13.51 Barnabas and Paul shake the dust off their feet against the people of the city of Antioch. There the Greek has “against them,” which Good News Translation interprets “in protest against them.” It may be helpful in the present passage also to interpret the significance of the action: “and shake the dust off your feet in protest against them” or “… as a sign that you have rejected them.”

There have been translators who have not kept the form shake off the dust from your feet but only the meaning, as in “show (or, tell) those people that you have rejected them.” Other translations have substituted an action from their own culture which has the same symbolic value. However, there does seem to be some value in keeping the biblical form if possible, if necessary adding a phrase that interprets it as we suggested above. The verse can then say “If no one in that house or town will welcome you or listen to what you have to say, then leave there and shake the dust off your feet as you leave, to show that you have rejected them.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .