'Seed' in the Bible

So God said, “Let the earth sprout [tender] vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit according to (limited to, consistent with) their kind, whose seed is in them upon the earth”; and it was so.

The earth sprouted and abundantly produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it.

So God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

also of the birds of the air, seven pair, the male and the female, to keep the offspring alive on the surface of the earth.

indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies [as conquerors].

Through your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have heard and obeyed My voice.”

Then Isaac planted [seed] in that land [as a farmer] and reaped in the same year a hundred times [as much as he had planted], and the Lord blessed and favored him.

In the seven abundant years the earth produced handfuls [for each seed planted].

Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed [to plant], that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

Then Joseph said to the people, “Look, today I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you shall plant the land.

At harvest time [when you reap the increase] you shall give one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be your own to use for seed for the field and as food for you and those of your households and for your little ones.”

The house of Israel called the bread manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like flat pastry (wafers) made with honey.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob), Your servants to whom You swore [an oath] by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

If a part of their carcass falls on any seed for sowing which is to be sown, it is clean;

but if water is put on the seed and a part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you.

‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear clothing of two kinds of material mixed together.

I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to languish also. And you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat what you plant.

‘And if a man consecrates to the Lord part of a field of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it; a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

‘And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.

The manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium.

For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a garden of vegetables.

“Every year you shall certainly tithe [a tenth] of all the yield of your seed which is produced by your field.

“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or everything produced by the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will become defiled [and banned for use].

“You will bring out a great quantity of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because the locusts will consume it.

For it was whenever Israel had sown [their seed] that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the people of the east and go up against them.

So with the stones Elijah built an altar in the name of the Lord. He made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed.

“Will you have faith and depend on him to return your grainAnd gather it from your threshing floor?

I have been young and now I am old,Yet I have not seen the righteous (those in right standing with God) abandonedOr his descendants pleading for bread.

I will establish your seed foreverAnd I will build up your throne for all generations.” Selah.

He who goes back and forth weeping, carrying his bag of seed [for planting],Will indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle with your hands in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening planting will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

“For ten acres of vineyard will yield [only] one bath of wine,And a homer (six bushels) of seed will produce [only] one ephah of grain.”

“And though a tenth [of the people] remain in the land,It will again be subject to destruction [consumed and burned],Like a massive terebinth tree or like an oakWhose stump remains when it is chopped down.The holy seed [the elect remnant] is its stump [the substance of Israel].”

In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;Yet [promising as it is] the harvest will be a heap [of ruins that passes away]In the day of sickness and incurable pain.

And they were on great waters.The grain of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile River, was Tyre’s revenue;And she was the market of nations.

When he has leveled its surface,Does he not sow [the seed of] dill and scatter cumin,And plant wheat in rows,And barley in its [intended] place and rye within its border?

Then He will give you rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread [grain] from the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful. In that day your livestock will graze in large and roomy pastures.

Blessed (happy, fortunate) are you who cast your seed upon all waters [when the river overflows its banks and irrigates the land],You who allow the ox and the donkey to roam freely.

“Hear this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of IsraelAnd who come from the seed of Judah,You who swear [allegiance] by the name of the LordAnd invoke the God of Israel,But not in truth (sincerity) nor in righteousness [with moral and spiritual integrity].

“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven,And do not return there without watering the earth,Making it bear and sprout,And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

“Yet I had planted you [O house of Israel as] a choice vine,A completely faithful seed.How then have you turned against MeInto degenerate shoots of a foreign and wild vine [alien to Me]?

“Behold (listen carefully), the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.

Nor shall you build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard or own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners (temporary residents).’

nor have we built ourselves houses to live in; nor do we have vineyards or fields or seed.

And as you saw the iron mixed with common clay, so they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not merge [for such diverse things or ideologies cannot unite], even as iron does not mix with clay.

The seeds [of grain] shrivel under the clods,The storehouses are desolate and empty,The barns are in ruinsBecause the grain is dried up.

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,“When the plowman shall overtake the one who gathers the harvest,And the one who treads the grapes [shall overtake] him who sows the seed [for the harvest continues until planting time];When the mountains will drip sweet wineAnd all the hills shall melt [that is, everything that was once barren will overflow with streams of blessing].

‘For there the seed will produce peace and prosperity; the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will produce its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit and possess all these things.

Behold, I am going to rebuke your seed, and I will spread the refuse on your faces, the refuse from the festival offerings; and you will be taken away with it [in disgrace].

Jesus gave them another parable [to consider], saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

The servants of the owner came to him and said, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how does it have weeds in it?’

He gave them another parable [to consider], saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

and the field is the world; and [as for] the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the weeds are the sons of the evil one;

He answered, “Because of your little faith [your lack of trust and confidence in the power of God]; for I assure you and most solemnly say to you, if you have [living] faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and [if it is God’s will] it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

and as he was sowing, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

Other seed fell on rocks where there was not much soil; and immediately a plant sprang up because the soil had no depth.

Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.

And other seed fell into good soil, and as the plants grew and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times [as much as had been sown].”

Then He said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who throws seed on the ground;

and he goes to bed at night and gets up every day, and [in the meantime] the seed sprouts and grows; how [it does this], he does not know.

It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown on the ground, even though it is smaller than all the [other] seeds that are [sown] on the soil,

“The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the sky ate it up.

And some seed fell on [shallow soil covering] the rocks, and as soon as it sprouted, it withered away, because it had no moisture.

Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.

And some fell into good soil, and grew up and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear and heed My words.”

“Now [the meaning of] the parable is this: The seed is the word of God [concerning eternal salvation].

But as for that seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word with a good and noble heart, and hold on to it tightly, and bear fruit with patience.

It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky found shelter and nested in its branches.”

And the Lord said, “If you have [confident, abiding] faith in God [even as small] as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree [which has very strong roots], ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea’; and [if the request was in agreement with the will of God] it would have obeyed you.

You are the sons (descendants) of the prophets and [heirs] of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed (descendant) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

It is as Isaiah foretold,“If the Lord of Hosts had not left us seed [future generations from which a believing remnant of Israelites came],We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah [totally rejected and destroyed]!”

If we have sown [the good seed of] spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

You fool! Every time you plant seed you sow something that does not come to life [germinating, springing up and growing] unless it first dies.

The seed you sow is not the body (the plant) which it is going to become, but it is a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain.

But God gives it a body just as He planned, and to each kind of seed a body of its own [is given].

Now He who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing [that is, your resources] and increase the harvest of your righteousness [which shows itself in active goodness, kindness, and love].

Now the promises [in the covenants] were decreed to Abraham and to his seed. God does not say, “And to seeds (descendants, heirs),” as if [referring] to many [persons], but as to one, “And to your Seed,” who is [none other than] Christ.

Why, then, the Law [what was its purpose]? It was added [after the promise to Abraham, to reveal to people their guilt] because of transgressions [that is, to make people conscious of the sinfulness of sin], and [the Law] was ordained through angels and delivered to Israel by the hand of a mediator [Moses, the mediator between God and Israel, to be in effect] until the Seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise.

And the seed whose fruit is righteousness (spiritual maturity) is sown in peace by those who make peace [by actively encouraging goodwill between individuals].

for you have been born again [that is, reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose] not of seed which is perishable but [from that which is] imperishable and immortal, that is, through the living and everlasting word of God.