13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting beside the sea.

² But such great crowds gathered about Him that He got into a boat and remained sitting there, while all the throng stood on the shore.

³ And He told them many things in parables (stories by way of illustration and comparison), saying, A sower went out to sow.

⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate them up.

⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil; and at once they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.

⁶ But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they dried up and withered away.

⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them out.

⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil, and yielded grain—some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some thirty.

⁹ He who has ears [to hear], let him be listening and let him ^[a]consider and ^[b]perceive and comprehend by hearing.

¹⁸ Listen then to the [meaning of the] parable of the sower:

^19 [a]While anyone is hearing the Word of the kingdom and does not grasp and comprehend it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the roadside.

²⁰ As for what was sown on thin (rocky) soil, this is he who hears the Word and at once welcomes and accepts it with joy;

²¹ Yet it has no real root in him, but is temporary (inconstant, ^[b]lasts but a little while); and when affliction or trouble or persecution comes on account of the Word, at once he is caused to stumble [he is repelled and ^[c]begins to distrust and desert Him Whom he ought to trust and obey] and he falls away.

²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delight and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit.

²³ As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the Word and grasps and comprehends it; he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundred times as much as was sown, in another sixty times as much, and in another thirty.