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He said unto them, `An enemy hath done this.' The servants said unto him, `Wilt thou then have us go and gather them up?'
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But he said, `Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
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Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
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Another parable put He forth before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
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which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
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Another parable spoke He unto them: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened."
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All these things spoke Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spoke He not unto them,
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that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."
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Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house, and His disciples came unto Him, saying, "Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field."
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He answered and said unto them, "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.
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The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the Kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one.