Mark 4:5-17

5Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.

6When the sun came up it was scorched, and because it did not have sufficient root, it withered.

7Other seed fell among the thorns, and they grew up and choked it, and it did not produce grain.

8But other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.”

9And he said, “Whoever has ears to hear had better listen!”

10When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

11He said to them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables,

12so that although they look they may look but not see, and although they hear they may hear but not understand, so they may not repent and be forgiven.”

13He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? Then how will you understand any parable?

14The sower sows the word.

15These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: Whenever they hear, immediately Satan comes and snatches the word that was sown in them.

16These are the ones sown on rocky ground: As soon as they hear the word, they receive it with joy.

17But they have no root in themselves and do not endure. Then, when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away.