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.
11. And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [of our circle] everything becomes a parable,
12. In order that they may [indeed] look and look but not see and perceive, and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, lest haply they should turn again, and it [their willful rejection of the truth] should be forgiven them. [Isa. 6:9, 10; Matt. 13:13-15.]
13. And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?
14. The sower sows the Word.