Matthew 13:30-32
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
30 Let them grow together until harvest;[a] then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”(A)
The Parable of the Mustard Seed.[b] 31 (B)He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. 32 [c](C)It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 13:30 Harvest: a common biblical metaphor for the time of God’s judgment; cf. Jer 51:33; Jl 4:13; Hos 6:11.
- 13:31–33 See Mk 4:30–32; Lk 13:18–21. The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast illustrate the same point: the amazing contrast between the small beginnings of the kingdom and its marvelous expansion.
- 13:32 See Dn 4:7–9, 17–19 where the birds nesting in the tree represent the people of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. See also Ez 17:23; 31:6.
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