Gathering … root up: in some languages it may be that gathering will not include pulling up the roots. One may then translate “because as you pull up the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them.” As in other occurrences of wheat, in cases where it is not known, “grain” or “crops” may be used.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .