24 Jesus presentedanotherparable to them, saying, "1The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowedgoodseed in his field.
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"But while his men were sleeping, his enemycame and sowedtaresamong* the wheat, and wentaway.
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"But when the wheatsprouted and boregrain, then the taresbecameevidentalso.
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"The slaves of the landownercame and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sowgoodseed in your field? Howthen does it havetares?'
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"And he said to them, 'An enemy* has donethis!' The slavessaid to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'
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"But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
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'Allowboth to growtogetheruntil the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "Firstgather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but 2gather the wheat into my barn."' "
The Mustard Seed
31 He presentedanotherparable to them, saying, "3The kingdom of heaven is like4a mustardseed, which a mantook and sowed in his field;
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and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is fullgrown, it is larger than the gardenplants and becomes a tree, so that 5THE BIRDS OF THE AIRcome and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES."
The Leaven
33 He spokeanotherparable to them, "6The kingdom of heaven is likeleaven, which a womantook and hid in 7threepecks of flouruntil it was allleavened."
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AllthesethingsJesusspoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them 8without a parable.
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This was to fulfillwhat was spokenthrough the prophet: "9I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTERTHINGSHIDDENSINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD."