went Jesus was sitting beside the sea, So many people came to Jesus, so he climbed into a boat and sat there.
And He told them many things in parables (stories by way of illustration and comparison), saying, A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate them up.
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.
But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they dried up and withered away.
Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them out.
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.
Then the disciples came to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?
And He replied to them, To you it has been given to know the secrets and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
For whoever has [spiritual knowledge], to him will more be given and he will be furnished richly so that he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is the reason that I speak to them in parables: because having the power of seeing, they do not see; and having the power of hearing, they do not hear, nor do they grasp and understand.
In them indeed is the process of fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which says: You shall indeed hear and hear but never grasp and understand; and you shall indeed look and look but never see and perceive.
For this nation's heart has grown gross (fat and dull), and their ears heavy and difficult of hearing, and their eyes they have tightly closed, lest they see and perceive with their eyes, and hear and comprehend the sense with their ears, and grasp and understand with their heart, and turn and I should heal them.
But blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.
Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous men [men who were upright and in right standing with God] yearned to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Listen then to the [meaning of the] parable of the sower:
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.
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;
Yet it has no real root in him, but is temporary (inconstant, 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 begins to distrust and desert Him Whom he ought to trust and obey] and he falls away.
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.
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.
