Mark 4:10–20

The Reason for the Parables

¹⁰And when he was alone, those around him together with the twelve began asking^g him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, “To you has been granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything is in parables, ¹²so that

‘they may look closely^h and not perceive,

and they may listen carefullyⁱ and not understand,

lest they turn and it be forgiven them.’ ”^j

The Parable of the Sower Interpreted

¹³And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴The sower sows the word. ¹⁵And these are the ones beside the path where the word is sown, and whenever they hear it,^* immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶And these are like^k the ones sown on the rocky ground, who whenever they hear the word immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷And they have no root in themselves, but are temporary. Then when^* affliction or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away. ¹⁸And others are the ones sown among the thorn plants—these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and^* choke the word and it becomes unproductive. ²⁰And those are the ones sown on the good soil, who hear the word and receive it^* and bear fruit—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.”^l