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He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'
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But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
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Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." ' "
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Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
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which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."
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Another parable He spoke to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened."
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All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them,
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that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world."
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Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field."
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He answered and said to them: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
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The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.