The Parable of the Sower

4 Once again Jesus began to teach by the sea, and a [fn]large crowd was gathered around him. So he got into [fn]the boat and sat in it on the sea, while the entire crowd was beside the sea on the shore. 2 Then he taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell [fn]along the path, and the [fn]birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up immediately because it had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no fruit. 8 But [fn]other seed fell into good soil and produced [fn]fruit that grew and increased; some bore thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred times more than what was sown.” 9 Then he [fn]said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”