The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
Matthew 13:24-30 · Berean Standard Bible
An enemy sows weeds among a farmer's wheat, and the owner lets both grow together until the harvest so the wheat isn't uprooted with the weeds. Jesus uses the wheat and the tares to explain why good and evil coexist in the world until God's final judgment, when the two will be separated. The parable calls for patience now and assures a decisive reckoning at the end of the age.
24Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away.
26When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
27The 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. So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them.
30Let 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 into my barn.’”
Read the wider context: Matthew 13.
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Related passages
- The Parable of the Mustard Seed — Matthew 13:31-33
- The Parable of the Wedding Banquet — Matthew 22:1-14
- The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard — Matthew 20:1-16
- Be Still and Wait Patiently for the Lord — Psalms 37:3-7