³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.

⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren: ^(A)Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be ^(B)rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom ^(C)which He promised to those who love Him?

^6 (A)I planted, ^(B)Apollos watered, ^(C)but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then ^(D)neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, ^(E)and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

⁹ For ^(F)we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are ^(G)God’s building.

³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes ^(A)the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, ^(B)for they are already white for harvest! ^36 (C)And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that ^(D)both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this the saying is true: ^(E)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; ^(F)others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶ Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. ⁸ But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded ^[a]a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, ^(A)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

The Parable of the Growing Seed

²⁶ And He said, ^(A)“The kingdom of God is as if a man should ^[a]scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷ and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and ^(B)grow, he himself does not know how. ²⁸ For the earth ^(C)yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain ripens, immediately ^(D)he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

²⁶ But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to ^(A)the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and ^[a]possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you.

²⁹ “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’