Mark 4:13-20

Christian Standard Bible

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹³ Then^(A) he said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable?^(B) How then will you understand all of the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows^(C) the word.^{(D) 15} Some are like the word sown on the path.^(E) When they hear, immediately Satan^(F) comes and takes away the word^(G) sown in them.^{[a] 16} And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.^{(H) 17} But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress^(I) or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.^{(J) 18} Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the worries^(K) of this age,^(L) the deceitfulness^[b](M) of wealth,^(N) and the desires^(O) for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.^{(P) 20} And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word,^(Q) welcome it, and produce fruit^(R) thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”