1 Then He began again to teach by the seashore. And a crowd gathered around Him so great that He got into a boat and was sitting in it, just off the shore, while all the people were on the land close to the sea.
2 He continued teaching them by many stories. In His teaching He spoke to them as follows:
3 "Listen! A sower went out to sow.
4 As he was sowing, some of the seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate them up.
5 Some fell upon rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up at once, because the soil was not deep;
6 but when the sun came up, they were scorched and withered away, because they had not taken root.
7 Some fell among the thorn seed, and the thorns grew up and choked them out and they yielded no grain.
8 Some fell in rich soil, and came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold."
9 And He said, "Let him who has ears listen!"
10 When He was by Himself, those who stayed about Him with the Twelve began to ask Him about the stories.
11 Then He said to them, "To you the secret of the kingdom of God has been entrusted, but to those who are on the outside everything is presented in stories, so that
12 'They may look and look and yet not see, And listen and listen and yet not understand, Lest, perchance, they should turn and be forgiven.'"
13 Then He said to them: "If you do not understand this story, how, indeed, can you understand any of my stories?
14 The message is what the sower sows.
15 The ones along the path are those who have the message sown in their hearts, but as soon as it is sown there, Satan comes and carries off the message that has been sown in their hearts.
16 In like manner these are the ones sown on rocky ground; as soon as they hear the truth, they accept it with ecstasy,
17 but it does not take real root in them, and so they last only a little while; then when trouble or persecution comes on account of the truth, they at once fall by the way.
18 A different class are those people sown among the thorns. They are people who listen to the message,
19 but the worries of the times, the deceiving pleasures of being rich, and evil desires for other things, creep in and choke the truth out, and it yields nothing.
20 And the people sown in rich soil are the people who listen to the message and welcome it and yield thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold."
21 Then He put a question to them: "A lamp is not brought to be put under a peck-measure or under a bed, is it? Is it not rather to be put on the lamp-stand?
22 For nothing is ever hidden by people except for the purpose of having it known, and people do not keep secrets except to tell them.
23 If anyone has ears let him listen!"
24 And He was saying to them: "Take care what you hear. The measure you give will come back to you, and more besides.
25 For whoever has will have more given to him, but whoever has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."
26 He also was saying: "The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground,
27 then continues sleeping by night and getting up by day, while the seed sprouts and comes up without his knowing how.
28 The ground of itself produces, first the stalk, then the head; at last there is the matured grain of wheat in the head.
29 But as soon as the crop Will permit it, he puts in the sickle, for the reaping time has come."
30 Then He kept on saying: "How can I further picture the kingdom of God, or by what story can I illustrate it?
31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all seeds,
32 but when it is properly sown, it comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under its shade."
33 With many stories like these He kept on telling them the message, as far as they could understand it.
34 He did not tell them anything except by stories, but to His own disciples He kept on privately explaining everything.
35 That same day when it was evening, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other Side."
36 So they left the crowd and took Him in the boat in which he was sitting. And there were other boats with Him.
37 But a furious squall of wind came up, and the waves were dashing over into the boat, so that it was fast filling.
38 He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, "Teacher, is it no concern to you that we are going down?"