12. For whoever has, to him more will be given and he will have plenty. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13. For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand.
14. ”And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing but will never understand; you will keep looking, but will never see.
15. For the heart of this people has become dull, their ears can barely hear, and they have shut their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts. Then they would turn back, and I would heal them.’
16. “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
17. Amen, I tell you, many a prophet and tzaddik longed to see what you are seeing and did not see, and to hear what you are hearing and did not hear.”
18. “You then, hear the parable of the sower.
19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one having been sown along the road.
20. “The one sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
21. Yet he has no root himself but lasts only a short while; and when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.
22. “But the one sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word; and the worries of the world and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
23. “Now the one sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands. He indeed bears fruit, yielding a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”
24. He presented to them another parable, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25. But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
26. Now when the stalk sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared.
27. So the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’
28. But he replied, ‘An enemy did this.’ Now the slaves say to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go out and gather them up?’