Mark 4:10–20

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret^e of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables,^{* 12}in order that

‘they may indeed look but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand;

so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’ ”^*

¹³And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴The sower sows the word. ¹⁵These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.^{* 16}And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷But they have no root and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.^{f 18}And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹but the cares of the age and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²⁰And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”