4 Again Jesus began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore.

² And He taught them many things in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), and in His teaching He said to them:

³ Give attention to this! Behold, a sower went out to sow.

⁴ And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵ Other seed [of the same kind] fell on ground full of rocks, where it had not much soil; and at once it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil;

⁶ And when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had not taken root, it withered away.

⁷ Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain.

⁸ And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown.

⁹ And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him be hearing [and let him ^[a]consider, and comprehend].

¹⁰ And as soon as He was alone, those who were around Him, with the Twelve [apostles], began to ask Him about the parables.

¹¹ And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, ^[b]the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [^[c]of our circle] everything becomes a parable,

¹² In order that they may [indeed] look and look but not see and perceive, and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, ^[d]lest haply they should turn again, and it [^[e]their willful rejection of the truth] should be forgiven them.^(A)

¹³ And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?

¹⁴ The sower sows the Word.

¹⁵ The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them.

¹⁶ And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy;

¹⁷ And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away.

¹⁸ And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word;

¹⁹ Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.

²⁰ And those sown on the good (well-adapted) soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit—some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some [even] a hundred times as much.

15 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

² Say to the Israelites, When any man has a running discharge from his body, because of his discharge he is unclean.

³ This shall be [the law concerning] his uncleanness in his discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge or has stopped [running], it is uncleanness in him.

⁴ Every bed on which the one who has the discharge lies is unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.

⁵ Whoever touches that person’s bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

⁶ And whoever sits on anything on which he who has the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

⁷ And he who touches the flesh of him who has the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

⁸ And if he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

⁹ And any saddle on which he who has the discharge rides shall be unclean.

¹⁰ Whoever touches anything that has been under him shall be unclean until evening; and he who carries those things shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until evening.

¹¹ Whomever he who has the discharge touches without rinsing his hands in water shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until evening.

¹² The earthen vessel that he with the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.

¹³ When he who has a discharge is cleansed of it, he shall count seven days for his purification, then wash his clothes, bathe in running water, and be clean.

¹⁴ On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before the Lord to the door of the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest;

¹⁵ And the priest shall offer them, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; and [he] shall make atonement for the man before the Lord for his discharge.

¹⁶ And if any man has a discharge of semen, he shall wash all his body in water, and be unclean until evening.

¹⁷ And every garment and every skin on which the sperm comes shall be washed with water, and be unclean until evening.

¹⁸ The woman also with whom a man with emission of semen shall lie, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until evening.

¹⁹ And if a woman has a discharge, her [regular] discharge of blood of her body, she shall be in her impurity or separation for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening.

²⁰ And everything that she lies on in her separation shall be unclean; everything also that she sits on shall be unclean.

²¹ And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until evening.

²² Whoever touches anything she sat on shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until evening.

²³ And if her flow has stained her bed or anything on which she sat, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening.

²⁴ And if any man lie with her and her impurity be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

²⁵ And if a woman has an issue of blood for many days, not during the time of her separation, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her [regular] impurity, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness she shall be as in the days of her impurity; she shall be unclean.^(A)

²⁶ Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be as the bed of her impurity, and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as in her impurity.

²⁷ And whoever touches those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until evening.

²⁸ But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall wait seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

²⁹ And on the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting;

³⁰ He shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; and he shall make atonement for her before the Lord for her unclean discharge.

³¹ Thus you shall separate the Israelites from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling My tabernacle that is in the midst of them.

³² This is the law for him who has a discharge and for him who has emissions of sperm, being made unclean by it;

³³ And for her who is sick with her impurity, and for any person who has a discharge, whether man or woman, and for him who lies with her who is unclean.