Mat 25:28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give [it] to him who had ten talents.
Mat 25:29 For to every one that has shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that has not shall be taken away even that which he has.
Mat 25:30 And cast you, the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Alternative: So take the talent from him and give it to the [servant] who has ten talents. For all have been given the same and should go beyond: but from those who have not, what they havve shall be lifted. And throw out the useless servant into the external darkness where people cry and chatter their teeth.

Before getting into these verses and the justice of the fate of the "unprofitable" servant, notice that there is no servant in this story that takes the money and makes bad investments and loses it. This servant is not being punished for failure but for a lack of courage. This raises two questions. What would the master done if the servant had been courageous and unsuccessful? And why doesn't Christ address this possibility?

The answer is simpler than it might seem. From Christ's viewpoint, failure is not possible in the scenario outlined in the analogy. The message here is about making productive use of your life with whatever you are given. Over the long-period of time that the master is gone, EVERYONE can make productive use of their life if they simply try. The only way that they can fail is if they are afraid to try to improve themselves. So Christ does cover the only possible failure scenario: when we choose not to be productive.

Christ only gives one possible reason for this failure: fear that makes us afraid to try. Someone's lack of ability doesn't matter. The story starts by admittng that people have different levels of ability. More interestingly, the story also doesn't cover the other primary cause of worthless lives: the pursuit of pleasure. Again, there is a simple reason. Christ just covered that problem in a similar story of the truly evil servant in Mat 24:48 (discussed here and note that the adjective used to described the servant really means "evil" unlike the "useless" and "fearful" adjectives that are really used here.)

This gets us to the point where we can discuss the fate of that servant, which is really interesting.

First, his money was taken away and given to the servant was the most productive. Christ says outright that this is the natural and right order of things. Echoing Mat 13:12 (discussed here), Christ says that those who do the most get rewarded for it. However, there is one important change in this version: where the first version use the word for "those" while this version uses the world that means "all." Christ is saying that all have been given gifts. We are all in debt to the Father for the gifts we are given (see our discussion of the Lord's prayer). We are all expected to do the most we can with those gifts in the time we are given.

This brings us to the final verse where the useless servant is thrown on. This servant's fate is identical to that of the evil servant and the improperly dressed wedding guest. He is tossed into the outer darkness. He remains ignorant and is made an outcast full of regrets and, if we want to interpret the "chattering teeth" that way, his fear. Of course, darkness and the unknown is always the source of fear.

"Every one" is from the Greek pas, which means "all," "every," "the whole," and "everything."

"Shall have in abundance" is a single word, perisseuo, which means "to be over and above," "to go beyond," "to abound in," "to be superior," and, in a negative sense, "to be superfulous."

"Shall be taken away" is from airo, which primarily means "to lift," and also means "to raise up," "to take up," "to raise a child," "to exalt," "to lift and take away," and "to remove."

"Cast" is from ekballô and means "throw out," "cast out of a place,"and "expose." Ek means "out of," "from," and "away from." Ballo is "to throw" or "to scatter." The general idea of ballo is "to throw without caring where something falls," so it isn't like putting something into a specific place.

"Unprofitable" is from achrêstos (achreios), which means "useless," "unprofitable," "do-nothing," "non-effective," "unwarlike," "unkind," "cruel," "obselete," and "not used."

"Darkness" is from skotos, which means "darkness," "gloom," "blindness," and "dizziness." It is a metaphor in Greek for ignorance.