²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”^(A)

³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,^(A)

⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

¹⁵ Then another angel came out of the temple^(A) and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle^(B) and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest^(C) of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶ So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

¹⁷ Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.^{(D) 18} Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar^(E) and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle^(F) and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” ¹⁹ The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.^(G)