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Selected Verse: Matthew 3:10 - Young's Literal
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Mt 3:10 |
Young's Literal |
and now also, the axe unto the root of the trees is laid, every tree therefore not bearing good fruit is hewn down, and to fire is cast. |
|
King James |
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
And now also--And even already.
the axe is laid unto--"lieth at."
the root of the trees--as it were ready to strike: an expressive figure of impending judgment, only to be averted in the way next described.
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire--Language so personal and individual as this can scarcely be understood of any national judgment like the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, with the breaking up of the Jewish polity and the extrusion of the chosen people from their peculiar privileges which followed it; though this would serve as the dark shadow, cast before, of a more terrible retribution to come. The "fire," which in another verse is called "unquenchable," can be no other than that future "torment" of the impenitent whose "smoke ascendeth up for ever and ever," and which by the Judge Himself is styled "everlasting punishment" (Mat 25:46). What a strength, too, of just indignation is in that word "cast" or "flung into the fire!"
The third Gospel here adds the following important particulars in Luk 3:10-16.
Luk 3:10 :
And the people--the multitudes.
asked him, saying, What shall we do then?--that is, to show the sincerity of our repentance.
Luk 3:11 :
He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat--provisions, victuals.
let him do likewise--This is directed against the reigning avarice and selfishness. (Compare the corresponding precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, Mat 5:40-42).
Luk 3:12 :
Then came also the publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master--Teacher.
what shall we do?--In what special way is the genuineness of our repentance to be manifested?
Luk 3:13 :
And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you--This is directed against that extortion which made the publicans a byword. (See on Mat 5:46; Luk 15:1).
Luk 3:14 :
And the soldiers--rather, "And soldiers"--the word means "soldiers on active duty."
likewise demanded--asked.
of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man--Intimidate. The word signifies to "shake thoroughly," and refers probably to the extorting of money or other property.
neither accuse any falsely--by acting as informers vexatiously on frivolous or false pretexts.
and be content with your wages--or "rations." We may take this, say WEBSTER and WILKINSON, as a warning against mutiny, which the officers attempted to suppress by largesses and donations. And thus the "fruits" which would evidence their repentance were just resistance to the reigning sins--particularly of the class to which the penitent belonged--and the manifestation of an opposite spirit.
Luk 3:15 :
And as the people were in expectation--in a state of excitement, looking for something new
and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not--rather, "whether he himself might be the Christ." The structure of this clause implies that they could hardly think it, but yet could not help asking themselves whether it might not be; showing both how successful he had been in awakening the expectation of Messiah's immediate appearing, and the high estimation and even reverence, which his own character commanded.
Luk 3:16 :
John answered--either to that deputation from Jerusalem, of which we read in Joh 1:19, &c., or on some other occasion, to remove impressions derogatory to his blessed Master, which he knew to be taking hold of the popular mind.
saying unto them all--in solemn protestation.
(We now return to the first Gospel.) |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The axe is laid at the root of the tree - Laying the axe at the root of a tree is intended to denote that the tree is to be cut down. It was not merely to be trimmed, or to be cut about the limbs, but the very tree itself was to be struck. That is, a searching, trying kind of preaching has been commenced. A kingdom of justice is to be set up. Principles and conduct are to be investigated. No art, no dissimulation, will be successful: People are to be tried by their lives, not by birth or profession. They who are not found to bear this test are to be rejected. The very root shall feel the blow, and the fruitless tree shall fall. This is a beautiful and very striking figure of speech, and a very direct threatening of future wrath. John regarded them as making a fair and promising profession, as trees in blossom do. But he told them, also, that they should bear fruit as well as flowers. Their professions of repentance were not enough. They should show, by a holy life, that their profession was genuine. |
Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Is laid (καῖται)
Not, is applied, as "She layeth her hands to the spindle" (Pro 31:19), but is lying.
Is hewn down and east
The present tense is graphic, denoting what is to happen at once and certainly. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
But the axe also already lieth - That is, there is no room for such idle pretences. Speedy execution is determined against all that do not repent. The comparison seems to be taken from a woodman that has laid down his axe to put off his coat, and then immediately goes to work to cut down the tree. This refers to the wrath to come in Mat 3:7. Is hewn down - Instantly, without farther delay. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
And now also the axe is laid - Or, Even now the axe lieth. As if he had said, There is not a moment to spare - God is about to cut off every impenitent soul - you must therefore either turn to God immediately, or be utterly and finally ruined. It was customary with the prophets to represent the kingdoms, nations, and individuals, whose ruin they predicted, under the notion of forests and trees, doomed to be cut down. See Jer 46:22, Jer 46:23; Eze 31:3, Eze 31:11, Eze 31:12. The Baptist follows the same metaphor: the Jewish nation is the tree, and the Romans the axe, which, by the just judgment of God, was speedily to cut it down. It has been well observed, that there is an allusion here to a woodman, who, having marked a tree for excision, lays his axe at its root, and strips off his outer garment, that he may wield his blows more powerfully, and that his work may be quickly performed. For about sixty years before the coming of Christ, this axe had been lying at the root of the Jewish tree, Judea having been made a province to the Roman empire, from the time that Pompey took the city of Jerusalem, during the contentions of the two brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, which was about sixty-three years before the coming of Christ. See Joseph. Antiq. l. xiv. c. 1-5. But as the country might be still considered as in the hands of the Jews, though subject to the Romans, and God had waited on them now nearly ninety years from the above time, expecting them to bring forth fruit, and none was yet produced; he kept the Romans as an axe, lying at the root of this tree, who were ready to cut it down the moment God gave them the commission. |
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent out of Jerusalem priests and Levites, that they might question him, `Who art thou?'
16 John answered, saying to all, `I indeed with water do baptise you, but he cometh who is mightier than I, of whom I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his sandals -- he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire;
15 And the people are looking forward, and all are reasoning in their hearts concerning John, whether or not he may be the Christ;
14 And questioning him also were those warring, saying, `And we, what shall we do?' and he said unto them, `Do violence to no one, nor accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.'
1 And all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming nigh to him, to hear him,
46 `For, if ye may love those loving you, what reward have ye? do not also the tax-gatherers the same?
13 and he said unto them, `Exact no more than that directed you.'
12 And there came also tax-gatherers to be baptised, and they said unto him, `Teacher, what shall we do?'
40 and whoever is willing to take thee to law, and thy coat to take -- suffer to him also the cloak.
41 `And whoever shall impress thee one mile, go with him two,
42 to him who is asking of thee be giving, and him who is willing to borrow from thee thou mayest not turn away.
11 and he answering saith to them, `He having two coats -- let him impart to him having none, and he having victuals -- in like manner let him do.'
10 And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, `What, then, shall we do?'
10 And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, `What, then, shall we do?'
11 and he answering saith to them, `He having two coats -- let him impart to him having none, and he having victuals -- in like manner let him do.'
12 And there came also tax-gatherers to be baptised, and they said unto him, `Teacher, what shall we do?'
13 and he said unto them, `Exact no more than that directed you.'
14 And questioning him also were those warring, saying, `And we, what shall we do?' and he said unto them, `Do violence to no one, nor accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.'
15 And the people are looking forward, and all are reasoning in their hearts concerning John, whether or not he may be the Christ;
16 John answered, saying to all, `I indeed with water do baptise you, but he cometh who is mightier than I, of whom I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his sandals -- he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire;
46 And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during.'
19 Her hands she hath sent forth on a spindle, And her hands have held a distaff.
7 And having seen many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming about his baptism, he said to them, `Brood of vipers! who did shew you to flee from the coming wrath?
12 And cut him off do strangers, The terrible of nations, and they leave him, On the mountains and in all valleys have his thin shoots fallen, And broken are his boughs at all streams of the land, And go down from his shade do all peoples of the land, and they leave him.
11 I give him into the hand of a god of nations, He dealeth sorely with him, In his wickedness I have cast him out.
3 Lo, Asshur, a cedar in Lebanon, Fair in branch, and shading bough, and high in stature, And between thickets hath its foliage been.
23 They have cut down her forest, An affirmation of Jehovah -- for it is not searched, For they have been more than the grasshopper, And they have no numbering.
22 Its voice as a serpent goeth on, For with a force they go, And with axes they have come in to her, As hewers of trees.