17. For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.
18. “Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.
19. When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.
20. What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;
21. yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
22. What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
23. What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit, and produces, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.”
24. He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,
25. but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.
26. But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.
27. The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’
28. “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’