⁶ So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’^(A) says the Lord of Armies.

⁷ ‘What are you, great mountain?^(A) Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain.^(B) And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it!’”

⁵ you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood^[a] to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God^(A) through Jesus Christ.

⁹ But you are a chosen race,^[a][b](A) a royal priesthood,^[c](B) a holy nation,^[d](C) a people for his possession,^[e](D) so that you may proclaim the praises^[f][g](E) of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.^(F)

¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy,^(A) but now you have received mercy.

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above^(A) is free, and she is our mother.

²³ But each in his own order:^(A) Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹⁸ “So listen to the parable of the sower: ^{(A) 19} When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path.^{(B) 20} And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.^{(C) 21} But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution^(D) comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. ²² Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age^(E) and the deceitfulness^[a] of wealth^(F) choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²³ But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”