Weeds

Uncultivated plants or shrubs, growing wild, often among cultivated crops or plants. Jesus Christ used the image of weeds in some of his parables to illustrate sin and worldliness.

The presence of weeds indicates desolation and neglect

Zephaniah 2:9 See also Proverbs 24:30–34; Isaiah 5:3–6, Isaiah 7:18–25, Isaiah 32:11–15, Isaiah 34:8–14, Isaiah 55:13; Hosea 9:5–6

Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah— a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

Weeds are worthless

Isaiah 7:23 See also Micah 7:4; Luke 6:44

And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.

Weeds were a serious problem for the farmer

Hosea 10:4 See also Job 31:38–40; Matthew 13:24–30

They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

Some varieties of weed were painful to the touch

Numbers 33:55 See also Joshua 23:9–13; Judges 2:1–3; 2 Samuel 23:6–7; Ezekiel 2:3–6, Ezekiel 28:20–24

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.

Weeds were destroyed by burning

Isaiah 27:4 See also Exodus 22:6; Isaiah 9:18–19, Isaiah 10:16–17

I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.

Weeds in Jesus Christ's parables

The parable of the sower and its explanation: Matthew 13:3–8 parallels Mark 4:3–8, Luke 8:5–8; Matthew 13:18–23 parallels Mark 4:13–20, Luke 8:11–15; Matthew 13:24–30, Matthew 13:36–43