Axe
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Matt. 3:10; 2 Kings 6:5)—a tool for cutting trees and wood and, at times, a weapon. Ancient axe heads of stone, bronze, or iron were fastened to wooden handles; Deuteronomy describes the danger of an iron head flying from the handle and accidentally killing a neighbor (Deut. 19:5). John the Baptist’s declaration that the axe lies at the root of the trees warns that unfruitful lives face imminent divine judgment. It is a call to repentance, not an ethnic prediction of the destruction of the Jewish people, as the source phrases it.