The Daily Audio Bible
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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. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will tell the things that were hidden
since the very foundation of the world.
The parable of the weeds explained
36 Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples came and joined him.
“Explain to us,” they said, “the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 “The one who sows the good seed,” said Jesus, “is the son of man. 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one; 39 the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels.
40 “So: when the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, that’s what it will be like at the close of the age. 41 The son of man will send out his angels, and they will collect together out of his kingdom everything that causes offense, and everyone who acts wickedly. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. If you have ears, then hear!”
Other parables
44 “The kingdom of heaven,” Jesus continued, “is like treasure hidden in a field. Someone found it and hid it, and in great delight went off and sold everything he possessed, and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who was looking for fine pearls, 46 and who found one that was spectacularly valuable. He went off and sold everything he possessed, and bought it.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.