⁶Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ⁸‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone again this year, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, fine. But if not, you can cut it down.’”