²⁶ And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth; ²⁷ and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how. ²⁸ The earth ^[a]beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the fruit ^[b]is ripe, straightway he ^[c]putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come.

³⁰ And he said, How shall we liken the kingdom of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth? ^31 [d]It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds that are upon the earth, ³² yet when it is sown, groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof.

³³ And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴ and without a parable spake he not unto them: but privately to his own disciples he expounded all things.