16 “aBut blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.

17 “For truly I say to you that amany prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

The Sower Explained

18 “aHear then the parable of the sower.

19 “When anyone hears athe 1word of the kingdom and does not understand it, bthe evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

20 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;

21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the 1word, immediately he 2afalls away.

22 “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of athe 1world and the bdeceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

23 “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some aa hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”