Mark 4:1-20

1Again 1He began to teach 2by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that 3He got into a boat on the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. 2And He was teaching them many things in 4parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, 3“Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” 9And He was saying, “5He who has ears to hear, 6let him hear.”

10As soon as He was alone, 7His followers, along with the twelve disciples, began asking Him about the parables. 11And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for 8those who are outside, everything comes 9in parables, 12so that 10while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand, otherwise they might return and it would be forgiven them.”

1311And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately 12Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they 13fall away. 18And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19but the worries of 14the 15world, and the 16deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it 17becomes unfruitful. 20And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and 18bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”