1. AGAIN JESUS began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore.
2. And He taught them many things in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), and in His teaching He said to them:
3. Give attention to this! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5. Other seed [of the same kind] fell on ground full of rocks, where it had not much soil; and at once it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil;
6. And when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had not taken root, it withered away.
7. Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain.
8. And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown.
9. And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him be hearing [and let him consider, and comprehend].
10. And as soon as He was alone, those who were around Him, with the Twelve [apostles], began to ask Him about the parables.