Luke 13:7

ἀμπελουργόν, the vine-dresser (ἄμπελος, ἔργον) here only in N.T. ἰδοὺ, lo! as of one who has a right to complain. τρία ἔτη, three years, reckoned not from the planting of the tree (it is three years after planting that it begins to bear fruit), but from the time that it might have been expected in ordinary course to yield a crop of figs. Three years is not a long period, but enough to determine whether it is going to be fruit-bearing, the one thing it is there for. In the spiritual sphere in national life that cannot be determined to soon. It may take as many thousand years. ἔρχομαι, I keep coming, the progressive present. The master comes not merely once a year, but again and again within the year, at the seasons when fruit may be found on a fig tree (Hahn). Cf. δουλεύω in Luke 15:29. οὐχ εὑρίσκω, I do not find it. I come and come and am always disappointed. Hence the impatient ἔκκοψον, cut it out (from the root). ἵνα τί καὶ : καὶ points to a second ground of complaint. Besides bearing no fruit it occupies space which might be more profitably filled. καταργεῖ (here and in Paul's epistles), renders useless; Vulgate, occupat, practically if not verbally the right rendering. A barren fig tree renders the land useless by occupying valuable space.