JMNT(i)
16 "So the first one happened along, saying, 'Master (or: Sir), your mina worked itself and earned ten more minas!'
17 "Then he said to him, 'Well done, [you are] an excellent slave! Because you came to be faithful and trustworthy in a least thing (= a small matter), be constantly holding (or: having) top authority over ten towns (or: cities).'
18 "Next came the second one, saying, 'Your mina, sir (master), made five minas.'
19 "So he to this one, also, 'And you, yourself, progressively come to be on top of five towns (or: cities).'
20 "And then the different one came, saying, 'Sir (or: Master), look! [Here is] your mina which I continued having lying away reserved (or: stored) within a handkerchief (or: piece of cloth).
21 "'You see, I was constantly fearing and wary of you, because you are a harsh person (or: an austere, severe, demanding man). You habitually take or pick up what you did not deposit, and you are repeatedly reaping what you did not sow.'
22 "He is then saying to him, 'From out of your own mouth I am now deciding about you, you worthless (good-for-nothing; malignant) slave! You had seen so as to know, did you, that I, myself, am a harsh person – constantly withdrawing what I did not deposit and repeatedly reaping what I did not sow (or: plant)?
23 "'And so why (through what reason or circumstance) did you not give my silver coin upon a table (= with the money changers, or, at a bank), and I, upon coming, could make a transaction with it – together with what it produced (offspring; = interest)?'
24 "And so, he said to those standing by, 'Take the mina away from him and give [it] to the one now having the ten minas.'
25 "'But master,' they interposed to him, 'he [already] now has ten minas!'
26 "'I continue saying to you people, that to everyone presently and habitually possessing (having and holding), [more] will be given; yet from the one not presently or habitually possessing (having or holding), that which he continues holding [onto] will be lifted up and taken away.