Mark 4:8-26

⁸Other seed fell into good soil and it produced a crop growing up and increasing thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times.”

⁹Then he said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁰When Jesus was alone, those who were close to him and with the twelve asked him about the parables.

¹¹He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to those outside everything is in parables,

¹²so that when they look, yes they look, but do not see, and so that when they hear, yes they hear, but do not understand, or else they would turn and God would forgive them.”

¹³Then he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the other parables?

¹⁴The farmer who sows his seed is the one who sows the word.

¹⁵These are the ones that fall beside the road, where the word was sown, but when they hear it, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

¹⁶These are the ones that are sown on rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.

¹⁷They have no root in themselves, but endure for a short time. Then tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, and immediately they stumble.

¹⁸The others are the ones that were sown among the thorns. They hear the word,

¹⁹but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things enter in and choke the word, and it does not produce a crop.

²⁰Then those that were sown in the good soil are the ones who hear the word and receive it, and they produce crops—thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown.”

²¹Jesus said to them, “Do you bring a lamp inside the house to put it under a basket, or under the bed? You bring it in and you put it on a lampstand.

²²For nothing is hidden that will not be known, and nothing is secret that will not come out into the open.

²³If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

²⁴He said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear, for the measure you use will be measured to you, and more will be added to you.

²⁵Because whoever has, to him will be given more, and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken.”

²⁶He also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who sows his seed on the ground.