1. THAT SAME day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting beside the sea.
2. But such great crowds gathered about Him that He got into a boat and remained sitting there, while all the throng stood on the shore.
3. And He told them many things in parables (stories by way of illustration and comparison), saying, A sower went out to sow.
4. And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate them up.
5. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil; and at once they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.
6. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they dried up and withered away.
7. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them out.
8. Other seeds fell on good soil, and yielded grain–some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some thirty.
9. He who has ears [to hear], let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing.
10. Then the disciples came to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?
11. And He replied to them, To you it has been given to know the secrets and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12. For whoever has [spiritual knowledge], to him will more be given and he will be furnished richly so that he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
13. This is the reason that I speak to them in parables: because having the power of seeing, they do not see; and having the power of hearing, they do not hear, nor do they grasp and understand.
14. In them indeed is the process of fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which says: You shall indeed hear and hear but never grasp and understand; and you shall indeed look and look but never see and perceive.
15. For this nation's heart has grown gross (fat and dull), and their ears heavy and difficult of hearing, and their eyes they have tightly closed, lest they see and perceive with their eyes, and hear and comprehend the sense with their ears, and grasp and understand with their heart, and turn and I should heal them. [Isa. 6:9, 10.]