The Barren Fig Tree

⁶Then he told them this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He went to check it for fruit but didn't find any. ⁷So he told the gardener, 'Look, for three years I've been coming to find fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?' ⁸The gardener replied, 'Sir, give it one more year. Let me dig around it and add fertilizer. ⁹If it produces fruit next year, great. But if not, then you can cut it down.'"