Jesus Teaches in Parables

13 On that day Jesus had gone out of ^(A)the house and was sitting ^(B)by the sea. ² And large crowds gathered to Him, so ^(C)He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.

³ And He told them many things in ^(D)parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; ⁴ and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵ Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and they sprang up immediately, because they had no depth of soil. ⁶ But after the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. ⁷ Others fell ^[a]among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. ⁸ But others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a ^(E)hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times as much. ^9 (F)The one who has ears, ^[b]let him hear.”

⁸ In ^(A)Lystra ^(B)a man was sitting whose feet were incapacitated. He had been disabled from his mother’s womb, and had never walked. ⁹ This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul ^(C)looked at him intently and saw that he had ^(D)faith to be ^[a]made well, ¹⁰ and he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” ^(E)And the man leaped up and began to walk. ¹¹ When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the ^(F)Lycaonian language, “^(G)The gods have become like men and have come down to us!” ¹² And they began calling Barnabas, ^[b]Zeus, and Paul, ^[c]Hermes, since he was ^[d]the chief speaker. ¹³ Moreover, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was ^[e]just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and ^(H)wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. ¹⁴ But when ^(I)the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they ^(J)tore their ^[f]robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out ¹⁵ and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also ^(K)men, of the same nature as you, ^(L)preaching the gospel to you, to turn from these ^[g](M)useless things to a ^(N)living God, who ^(O)made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them. ^16 [h]In past generations He ^(P)permitted all the ^[i]nations to ^(Q)go their own ways; ¹⁷ yet ^(R)He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and ^(S)gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, ^[j]satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” ¹⁸ And even by saying these things, only with difficulty did they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.

¹⁹ But ^(T)Jews came from ^(U)Antioch and ^(V)Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they ^(W)stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking that he was dead. ²⁰ But while ^(X)the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he left with Barnabas for ^(Y)Derbe.