1Again he began to teach by the seaside.A great multitude was gathered to him,so that he entered into a boat in the sea and sat down.All the multitude were on the land by the sea.2He taught them many things in parables,and told them in his teaching,3“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow.4As he sowed, some seed fell by the road,and the birds came and devoured it.5Others fell on the rocky ground,where it had little soil,and immediately it sprang up,because it had no depth of soil.6When the sun had risen, it was scorched;and because it had no root, it withered away.7Others fell among the thorns,and the thorns grew up and choked it,and it yielded no fruit.8Others fell into the good ground and yielded fruit,growing up and increasing.Some produced thirty times,some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.”9He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10When he was alone,those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.11He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom,but to those who are outside,all things are done in parables,12that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive,and hearing they may hear and not understand,lest perhaps they should turn again,and their sins should be forgiven them.’”
13He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable?How will you understand all of the parables?14The farmer sows the word.15The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown;and when they have heard,immediately Satan comes and takes away the wordwhich has been sown in them.16These in the same way are thosewho are sown on the rocky places,who, when they have heard the word,immediately receive it with joy.17They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived.When oppression or persecution arises because of the word,immediately they stumble.18Others are those who are sown among the thorns.These are those who have heard the word,19and the cares of this age,and the deceitfulness of riches,and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word,and it becomes unfruitful.20Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word,accept it, and bear fruit,some thirty times,some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”