₂₄Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field. ₂₅One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ₂₆When the plants grew and the ears of corn began to form, then the weeds showed up. ₂₇The man's servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?’ ₂₈‘It was some enemy who did this,’ he answered. ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ they asked him. ₂₉‘No,’ he answered, ‘because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. ₃₀Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.’ ”

₃₆When Jesus had left the crowd and gone indoors, his disciples came to him and said, “Tell us what the parable about the weeds in the field means.”

₃₇Jesus answered, “The man who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man; ₃₈the field is the world; the good seed is the people who belong to the Kingdom; the weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One; ₃₉and the enemy who sowed the weeds is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvest workers are angels. ₄₀Just as the weeds are gathered up and burnt in the fire, so the same thing will happen at the end of the age: ₄₁the Son of Man will send out his angels to gather up out of his Kingdom all those who cause people to sin and all others who do evil things, ₄₂and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and grind their teeth. ₄₃Then God's people will shine like the sun in their Father's Kingdom. Listen, then, if you have ears!