26 And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like* a man who castsseed upon the soil;
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and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seedsprouts and grows-how, he himself does not know.
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"The soilproducescrops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the maturegrain in the head.
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"But when the croppermits, he immediately1puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
Parable of the Mustard Seed
302And He said, "How shall we 3picture the kingdom of God, or by whatparable shall we present it?
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"It is like a mustardseed, which, whensown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
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yetwhen it is sown, it grows up and becomeslarger than all the gardenplants and formslargebranches; so that 4THE BIRDS OF THE AIRcanNESTUNDER ITS SHADE."
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With manysuchparables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;
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and He did not speak to them 5without a parable; but He was 6explainingeverythingprivately* to His owndisciples.
Jesus Stills the Sea
357On that day, when eveningcame, He said to them, "Let us goover to the otherside."
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Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them 8in the boat, just as He was; and otherboats were with Him.