Mark 4:26–34

Parable of the Seed

26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.

28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

29 “But when the crop permits, he immediately 1aputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 aAnd He said, “How shall we 1bpicture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,

32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that athe birds of the 1air can nest under its shade.”

33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;

34 and He did not speak to them awithout a parable; but He was bexplaining everything privately to His own disciples.