O my God, make them like dead thistles, ¹  like dead weeds blown away by ²  the wind!

When ¹  the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.

But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them.

But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds ¹  among the wheat and went away.

As ¹  the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

then let thorns sprout up in place of wheat, and in place of barley, weeds!” ¹  The words of Job are ended.

I saw ¹  that thorns had grown up all over it, the ground ²  was covered with weeds, and its stone wall was broken down.

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow ¹  in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. ² 

They ¹  utter empty words, ²  taking ³  false oaths and making empty ⁴  agreements. Therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds ⁵  in the furrows of a plowed field.

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

The field is the world and the good seed are the people ¹  of the kingdom. The weeds are the people ²  of the evil one,

My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ¹  They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests ²  because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ³ 

Look! ¹  Even if ²  they flee from the destruction, Egypt will take hold ³  of them, and Memphis will bury them. The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure ⁴  – thorn bushes will occupy their homes. ⁵ 

So the slaves ¹  of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

Let both grow together until the harvest. At ¹  harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then ²  gather ³  the wheat into my barn.”’”

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, “be certain that Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah. They will be overrun by weeds, ¹  filled with salt pits, ²  and permanently desolate. Those of my people who are left ³  will plunder their belongings; ⁴  those who are left in Judah ⁵  will take possession of their land.”