The Sower Went Out

10Then the disciples came up and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

11He answered them, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”

12For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

13For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

14And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘You will indeed hear, but never understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive.’

15For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they hear heavily, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn back, and I will heal them.

16But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.

17For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.

18You, then, hear the parable of the one who sowed.

19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown beside the road.

20As for the one sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,

21Yet he has no root in himself, but is temporary. When affliction or persecution arises because of the word, he immediately falls away.

22And the one sown among the thorns—this is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

23But the one sown on the good soil—this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, in one case a hundred, in another sixty, and in another thirty.