Matthew 13:1–35

¹And that same day Jesus went out from the house and sat down by the sea. ²And great crowds were gathered together to him, so that going on board ship himself he sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the shore. ³And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow: ⁴and as he sowed, some grains fell along the way, and the birds came and devoured them; ⁵and others fell upon the rocky places where they had not much earth, and immediately they sprang up out of the ground because of not having any depth of earth, ⁶but when the sun rose they were burned up, and because of not having any root were dried up; ⁷and others fell upon the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them; ⁸and others fell upon the good ground, and produced fruit, one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty. ⁹He that has ears, let him hear. ¹⁰And the disciples came up and said to him, Why speakest thou to them in parables? ¹¹And he answering said to them, Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given; ¹²for whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall be caused to be in abundance; but he who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him. ¹³For this cause I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor understand; ¹⁴and in them is filled up the prophecy of Esaias, which says, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and beholding ye shall behold and not see; ¹⁵for the heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have closed their eyes as asleep, lest they should see with the eyes, and hear with the ears, and understand with the heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. ¹⁶But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear; ¹⁷for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye behold and did not see them, and to hear the things which ye hear and did not hear them. ¹⁸Ye, therefore, hear the parable of the sower. ¹⁹From every one who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and catches away what was sown in his heart: this is he that is sown by the wayside. ²⁰But he that is sown on the rocky places—this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹but has no root in himself, but is for a time only; and when tribulation or persecution happens on account of the word, he is immediately offended. ²²And he that is sown among the thorns—this is he who hears the word, and the anxious care of this life, and the deceit of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. ²³But he that is sown upon the good ground—this is he who hears and understands the word, who bears fruit also, and produces, one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty.

²⁴Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man sowing good seed in his field; ²⁵but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel amongst the wheat, and went away. ²⁶But when the blade shot up and produced fruit, then appeared the darnel also. ²⁷And the bondmen of the householder came up and said to him, Sir, hast thou not sown good seed in thy field? whence then has it darnel? ²⁸And he said to them, A man that is an enemy has done this. And the bondmen said to him, Wilt thou then that we should go and gather it up? ²⁹But he said, No; lest in gathering the darnel ye should root up the wheat with it. ³⁰Suffer both to grow together unto the harvest, and in time of the harvest I will say to the harvestmen, Gather first the darnel, and bind it into bundles to burn it; but the wheat bring together into my granary. ³¹Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; ³²which is less indeed than all seeds, but when it is grown is greater than herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches. ³³He spoke another parable to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it had been all leavened. ³⁴All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, ³⁵so that that should be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the world’s foundation.