Matthew 13:24-34

New Testament for Everyone

The parable of the weeds

²⁴ He put another parable to them.

“The kingdom of heaven,” he said, “is like this! Once upon a time a man sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ While the workers were asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds in among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the crop came up and produced wheat, then the weeds appeared as well.

²⁷ “So the farmer’s servants came to him.

“ ‘Master,’ they said, ‘didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “ ‘This is the work of an enemy,’ he replied.

“ ‘So,’ the servants said to him, ‘do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘If you do that you’ll probably pull up the wheat as well, while you’re collecting the weeds. ³⁰ Let them both grow together until the harvest. Then, when it’s time for harvest, I will give the reapers this instruction: First gather the weeds and tie them up in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

³¹ He put another parable to them.

“The kingdom of heaven,” he said, “is like a grain of mustard seed, which someone took and sowed in his field. ³² It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when it grows it turns into the biggest of the shrubs. It becomes a tree, and the birds in the sky can then come and nest in its branches.”

³³ He told them another parable.

“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven,” he said, “which a woman took and hid inside three measures of flour, until the whole thing was leavened.”

³⁴ Jesus said all these things to the crowds in parables. He didn’t speak to them without a parable.