Luke 3:9

is laid Literally, "lies." The notion is that of a woodman touching a tree with the edge of his axe to measure his blow before he lifts his arm for the sweep which fells it.

is hewn down and cast into the fire Literally, "is being hewn down, and being cast." It is almost impossible to reproduce in English the force of this use of the present. It is called the - praesens futurascens," and is used in cases when the doom has been long uttered, and is, by the evolution of the natural laws of God's dealings, in course of inevitable accomplishment. But we see from prophetic imagery that even when the tree has been felled and burned "the watchers and holy ones" may still have charge to leave the stump of it in the tender grass of the field that it may grow again, Daniel 4:25: and we see from the express language of St Paul that the olive tree of Jewish life was not to be cut down and burned for ever (Romans 9:10.). A barren fig tree was also our Lord's symbol of the Jewish nation. Luke 13:6.