The Parable of the Sower

¹Again vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ²And xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³“Listen! Behold, ya sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ait withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold.” ⁹And he said, d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰And ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, f“To you has been given gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for hthose outside everything is in parables, ¹²iso that

“‘they jmay indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they kshould turn and be forgiven.’”

¹³lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴mThe sower sows nthe word. ¹⁵And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it owith joy. ¹⁷And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qthey fall away.1 ¹⁸And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ubear fruit, vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

A Lamp Under a Basket

²¹wAnd he said to them, x“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? ²²yFor nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. ²³zIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: awith the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. ²⁵bFor to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The Parable of the Seed Growing

²⁶And he said, c“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. ²⁷He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; dhe knows not how. ²⁸The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once ehe puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰fAnd he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹It is like ga grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

³³hWith many such parables he spoke ithe word to them, jas they were able to hear it. ³⁴He did not speak to them kwithout a parable, but lprivately to his own disciples he mexplained everything.

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