In the translation of this verse, care should be taken that there is no confusion in the use of the pronouns He (in its two occurrences) and him.

He refused may be better as direct discourse: “He said, ‘I will not’ ” or “… ‘I refuse to do that.’ ”

And went and put him in prison is more literally “but going away he threw him into jail.” The verb “threw” is definitely causative and is so rendered by many translations as “had him jailed” (New English Bible). But the function of the participle “going away” is questionable. Some translations represent it as a separate action from that of having the man jailed (Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Moffatt). Others translate it with the force of an auxiliary to the main verb; see, for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“so he immediately had him put in jail”) and New American Bible (“Instead, he had him put in jail”). Still others have said “he ordered the authorities to put the man in jail until he paid the debt in full.”

Debt translates a different noun from that used in verse 27, though the reference is clearly the same. Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, 1st edition renders the last clause “until he should pay everything.” One may need to be even more specific: “until the man should pay him everything that he owed him.”

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 .