Every plant … will be rooted up is a literal translation of the Greek text. New Jerusalem Bible makes a slight alteration: “Any plant … will be pulled up by the roots.” The figure of a plant as a symbol for God’s true people has its background in Isaiah 60.21 and was used widely among the Jews, including the sect at Qumran. Jesus could not have made a stronger attack on the Pharisees than to accuse them of not being the true vine which God had planted. It may be necessary to shift to an active: “My Father in heaven will pull up every plant which he did not plant.” It may even be necessary to specify who these plants are: “Those Pharisees are like plants which my Father in heaven did not plant, and he will pull up every one of them.”

Notice from these examples that in some languages Every plant will be rendered “any plant,” and that rooted up can be translated “pulled up by the roots.”

Heavenly Father may have to be “God, my Father in heaven.”

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 .