New Testament in a Year

The Parable of the Sower

4 ^(A)And He began to teach again ^(B)by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that ^(C)He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. ² And He was teaching them many things in ^(D)parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³ “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; ⁴ and it happened that as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no ^[a]crop. ⁸ And other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they were yielding a ^[b]crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And He was saying, “^(E)He who has ears to hear, ^[c]let him hear.”

¹⁰ And when He was alone, ^[d]His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. ¹¹ And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to ^(F)those who are outside, everything comes ^(G)in parables, ¹² so that ^(H)while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven.”

The Parable of the Sower Explained

^13 (I)And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately ^(J)Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. ¹⁶ And in a similar way, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places: those who, when hearing the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷ and they have no root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they ^[e]fall away. ¹⁸ And others are those being sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹ but the worries of ^(K)the ^[f]world, and the ^(L)deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for anything else enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ And those are the ones which were sown on the good soil: they who hear the word and accept it and ^(M)are bearing fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”