13:28a

An enemy did this: The word this refers to planting weeds in the wheat field.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

It was some enemy who did this (Good News Translation)
-or-
An enemy planted weeds. (New Century Version)

13:28b

So: Verse 13:28b is the servants’ response to the field owner’s statement. The Berean Standard Bible introduces this response with the conjunction So. Many English versions do not have a conjunction here. In some languages, no conjunction will be necessary here either.

Do you want us to go and pull them up: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as pull them up means “gather” or “collect.” Here it refers to removing the weeds. The word them refers to the weeds.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

pull up the weeds (Contemporary English Version)

-or-

pull out the weeds (New Living Translation (2004))

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