³⁰ As for you, son of man, your people who talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses say one to another, every one to his brother, Come and hear what the word is that comes forth from the Lord.

³¹ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear the words you say, but they will not do them; for with their mouths they show much love, but their hearts go after and are set on their [idolatrous greed for] gain.

³² Behold, you are to them as a very lovely [love] song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words but do not do them.

²⁴ So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a ^[a]sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock.

²⁵ And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand.

²⁷ And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great and complete was the fall of it.

¹⁴ In them indeed is ^[a]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.

¹⁵ 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.^(A)

^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.

⁴⁹ But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.