11. And He answering, said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the secrets of the reign of the heavens, but to them it has not been given.
12. “For whoever possesses, to him more shall be given, and he shall have overflowingly; but whoever does not possess, even what he possesses shall be taken away from him.
13. “Because of this 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 Yeshayahu is completely filled, which says, ‘Hearing you shall hear and by no means understand, and seeing you shall see and by no means perceive,
15. for the heart of this people has become thickened, and their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart, and turn back, and I heal them.’
16. “And blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear,
17. for truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous ones longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
18. “You, then, hear the parable of the sower:
19. “When anyone hears the word of the reign, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is that sown by the wayside.
20. “And that sown on rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
21. yet he has no root in himself, but is short-lived, and when pressure or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
22. “And that sown among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the worry of this age and the deceit of riches choke the word, and it becomes fruitless.
23. “And that sown on the good soil is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields – some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”