Mark 4:10–20

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰And ^ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, ^f“To you has been given ^gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for ^hthose outside everything is in parables, ¹²ⁱso that

“ ‘they ^jmay indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they ^kshould turn and be forgiven.’ ”

^13lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ^14mThe sower sows ⁿthe word. ¹⁵And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it ^owith joy. ¹⁷And they have no root in themselves, but ^pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^qthey fall away.^{1 18}And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹but ^rthe cares of ^sthe world and ^tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ^ubear fruit, ^vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”