1 Again Jesus began to teach by the Sea of Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was very large. So he got into a boat. He sat down in it out on the lake. All the people were along the shore at the water's edge.
2 He taught them many things by using stories. In his teaching he said,
3 "Listen! A farmer went out to plant his seed.
4 He scattered the seed on the ground. Some fell on a path. Birds came and ate it up.
5 Some seed fell on rocky places, where there wasn't much soil. The plants came up quickly, because the soil wasn't deep.
6 When the sun came up, it burned the plants. They dried up because they had no roots.
7 Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and crowded out the plants. So the plants did not bear grain.