4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:
5 ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up.
6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.
8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.’When he said this, he called out, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’
9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
10 He said, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,‘ “though seeing, they may not see;though hearing, they may not understand.”