The Parable of the Sower

4 And again he began to teach beside the sea,^[a] and a very large crowd was gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and^[b] sat on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the sea on the land. ² And he began to teach^[c] them many things in parables, and was saying to them in his teaching, ³ “Listen! Behold, the sower went out to sow. ⁴ And it happened that while he was sowing, some seed^[d] fell on the side of the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up at once, because it did not have any depth of soil. ⁶ And when the sun rose it was scorched, and because it did not have enough root, it withered. ⁷ And other seed fell among the thorn plants, and the thorn plants came up and choked it, and it did not produce grain.^{[e] 8} And other seed fell on the good soil, and produced grain,^[f] coming up and increasing, and it bore a crop^[g]—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.^{[h] 9} And he said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”