1 AGAIN JESUS began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore. 2 And He taught them many things in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), and in His teaching He said to them: 3 Give attention to this! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed [of the same kind] fell on ground full of rocks, where it had not much soil; and at once it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil; 6 And when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had not taken root, it withered away. 7 Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown. 9 And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him be hearing [and let him 1 consider, and comprehend].