25
but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
26
So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
27
And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? ’
28
He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this. ’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them? ’
29
But he said,
1‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
30
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers,
2Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. ’”
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven
31 He put another parable before them, saying,
3“The kingdom of heaven is like
4a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
32
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. ”
33
He told them another parable.
5“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in
6three measures of flour, till it was
7all leavened. ”
Prophecy and Parables
34 8All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.
35
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
9“I will open my mouth in parables;
10I will utter what has been hidden
11since the foundation of the world. ”