Matthew 13:1-58
13 On that day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside;
2 and great crowds gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it, and all the crowd stood on the beach;
3 and he spoke much to them in parables, saying “Once upon a time a sower went out to sow.
4 And in his sowing some fell on the roadside, and the birds came and ate it up;
5 and some fell on the rocky ground where it had not much soil, and came up at once because of not having any depth of soil,
6 but was scorched when the sun rose, and dried up because of not having roots;
7 and some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and smothered it;
8 and some fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, one grain a hundred and another sixty and another thirty.
9 Let him who has ears hear!”
10 And the disciples approached and said to him “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
11 * and he answered “Because it is given to you to know the secrets of the Reign of Heaven, but it is not given to them.
12 For whoever has, more shall be given to him, and he shall have enough and to spare; but whoever has not, even what he has shall be taken from him.
13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because when they see they do not see, and when they hear they do not hear nor understand;
14 and Isaiah’s prophecy which says ‘Hear you shall, and not understand; and see you shall, and not perceive;
15 for this people’s wits are thickened, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut, for fear they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their wits, and turn back, and I should heal them’ is fulfilled to them.
16 But happy are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear;
17 for I tell you verily that many prophets and saints desired to see what you see and to hear what you hear, and did not.
18 Hear then, you, the parable of the sower.
19 When anyone hears the word of the Reign and does not understand it, the Evil One comes and carries off what has been sowed in his heart; this is the one that was sowed on the roadside.
20 And the one who has sowed on the rocky ground, he is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy,
21 yet has no root in him but is temporary, and when there comes distress or persecution because of the word he is staggered at once.
22 And the one who was sowed among the thorns, he is the one who hears the word, and temporal anxieties and the deceits of wealth stifle the word and it becomes unfruitful.
23 And the one who was sowed on the good soil, he is the one who hears and understands the word; who bears his crop, and produces one a hundred and another sixty and another thirty.”
24 He set before them another parable, saying “The Reign of Heaven resembles a man who sowed good seed in his field;
25 but while men were asleep his enemy came and sowed darnel in among the wheat, and went off.
26 * And when the stalks began to ear and made heads, then the darnel too showed itself;
27 and the proprietor’s servants came and said to him ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? then how comes it to have darnel?’
28 And he said to them ‘An enemy did that.’ And the servants say to him ‘Then do you want us to go and pick them out?’
29 But he says to them ‘No, for fear that in picking out the darnel you should pull up the wheat along with it.
30 Leave both to grow together till harvest; and at harvesttime I will tell the harvesters “Pull out the darnel first and tie it in bundles to burn, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
31 He set before them another parable, saying “The Reign of Heaven is like a grain of mustard which a man took and sowed in his field;
32 which is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it grows it is the largest of the plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
33 He spoke to them another parable: “The Reign of Heaven is like a bit of yeast which a woman took and buried in forty quarts of flour till it all grew yeasty.”
34 All this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and spoke nothing to them without parable,
35 so that what was said through the prophet in the words “I will open my mouth in parables, I will emit things hidden since the foundation of the world” should be fulfilled.
36 Then he left the crowds and came into the house; and his disciples approached him, saying “Explain the parable of the darnel in the field to us.”
37 And he answered “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man;
38 and the field is the world; and the good seed, that is the men of the Reign, and the darnel is the men of evil;
39 and the enemy that sowed it is the devil; and the harvest is the final time, and the harvesters are angels.
40 As darnel, then, is picked out and burned up, so it will be at the final time:
41 the Son of Man will send out his angels and they will pick out from his kingdom all snares that trip people up, and men that do wickedness,
42 * and throw them into the furnace of fire; there will the weeping and the grinding of teeth be.
43 Then will the righteous shine out like the sun in their Father’s reign. Let him who has ears hear!
44 “The Reign of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man has found and hid, and in his gladness he goes and sells all he has and buys that field.
45 “Again, the Reign of Heaven is like a merchant who is looking for fine pearls,
46 and, having found one very valuable pearl, has gone and sold everything he had and bought it.
47 “Again, the Reign of Heaven is like a seine that is thrown into the sea and gathers all sorts,
48 * and when it is filled they draw it up on the beach and sit down and sort the good into tubs, but throw out the foul.
49 So it will be at the final time: the angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the righteous
50 * and throw them into the furnace of fire; there will the weeping and the grinding of teeth be.
51 “Have you understood all this?”They said to him “Yes.”
52 And he said to them “Accordingly, every scribe who has become a disciple of the Reign of Heaven is like a householder who draws out from his stock new things and old things.”
53 And when Jesus had finished these parables he took his departure from that place;
54 and he came to his hometown and taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said “Where does this man get this wisdom and these miracles?
55 * why, this is the carpenter’s son, his mother is named Mary and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judah,
56 and his sisters are all of them among us—so where does this man get all this?”
57 and they were staggered at him. But Jesus said to them “A prophet is not unhonored anywhere but in his hometown and in his house”;
58 and he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelievingness.
Footnotes
^ 13:11 Or answered “It is given
^ 13:26 Lit. the grass budded and made fruit
^ 13:42 Or setting of teeth
^ 13:48 (tubs) The Greek word means receptacles of any kind
^ 13:50 Or setting of teeth
^ 13:55 Lit. miracles? is not this . . . is not his mother . . . are not his sisters
