Jesus teaches by the sea. He relates the parable of the sower. Tells why he teaches in parables. Explains the parable of the sower. Relates the parable of the wheat and tares.
And Jesus stood beside the sea and taught; the multitudes pressed close upon him and he went into a boat that was near by and put a little ways from shore, and then he spoke in parables; he said,
2 Behold, a sower took his seed and went into his field to sow.
3 With lavish hand he scattered forth the seed and some fell in the hardened paths that men had made,
4 And soon were crushed beneath the feet of other men; and birds came down and carried all the seed away.
5 Some seed fell on rocky ground where there was little soil; they grew and soon the blades appeared and promised much;
6 But then there was no depth of soil, no chance for nourishment, and in the heat of noonday sun they withered up and died.
7 Some seed fell where thistles grew, and found no earth in which to grow and they were lost;
8 But other seed found lodgment in the rich and tender soil and grew apace, and in the harvest it was found that some brought forth a hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.
9 They who have ears to hear may hear; they who have hearts to understand may know.