¹ Jesus^a began to teach again by the sea, and such a big crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, and the whole crowd was on the shore^b by the sea. ² He began teaching them with many parables, and in his teaching, he said to them, ³ “Listen! Look, the person who plants seed went out to plant seed. ⁴ It came to be that during the planting, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it sprang up straightaway^c because of not having deep soil. ⁶ When the sun came up, it was scorched, and because of not having roots, it withered. ⁷ Other seed fell among the thornbushes, and the thornbushes grew and choked it, and it didn’t produce any crop.^{d 8} And other seed fell in the fertile^e soil and produced a crop, growing and flourishing and one was bearing 30, and one was bearing 60, and one was bearing 100.” ⁹ Then he said, “Whoever has ears to hear should hear!”

¹⁰ When he came to be alone, those around him, along with the Twelve, began to ask him about the parables.

¹¹ “The mystery of God’s reign has been shared with you, but for those who are outside, it comes to be that everything is with parables, ¹² ‘so those who see might see and not recognize,^f and those who hear might hear and not put it together; otherwise, they might turn back, and it would be dismissed for them.’”^g

¹³ “Do you not understand^h this parable?” he said to them. “How will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The one who plants seed plants the Message. ¹⁵ These are the ones along the path: Where the message is planted and whenever people hear it, the Adversary comes straightaway and plucks away the message that was planted among them. ¹⁶ These are the ones planted on the rocky ground: When people hear the message and straightaway accept it with joy, ¹⁷ but they don’t have roots among themselves, so they are temporary. Then, when there comes to be oppression or persecution because of the message, they are tripped up straightaway. ¹⁸ Others are the ones planted among the thornbushes: These are the ones who heard the message, ¹⁹ and the worries of the Age and the deception of wealth and desires regarding everything else creep in and choke out the message and it comes to produce no crop. ²⁰ And these are the ones planted on the fertile soil: These ones hear the message and embrace it and bear crops, one bearing 30, one bearing 60, and one bearing 100.”

²¹ He also said to them, “A lamp isn’t brought so that it can be put under a container or under a cot, is it? Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand? ²² You see, nothing is hidden except for the purpose of it being made clearly visible,ⁱ and it doesn’t come to be concealed unless to be brought into the light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, they should hear!”

²⁴ He also said to them, “Pay attention^j to what you hear. The measurement you use to measure will be used to measure you, and it will be set beside you for comparison. ²⁵ Whoever gets^k it, it will be given to them, and whoever does not get it, even what they do get will be plucked away from them.

²⁶ He also said, “This is what God’s reign is like: It’s as if a person were to sprinkle seed on the ground, ²⁷ go to sleep, and get up, night and day, and the seed were to sprout and grow, while they don’t understand it. ²⁸ The soil independently bears a crop, first the grass, then the head, then the ripe grain in the head. ²⁹ When the crop is ready, they send the sickle straightaway because the harvest has arrived.”

³⁰ He also said, “How might we make a comparison with God’s reign? Or, with what parable might we explain it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which when it is planted in the ground, it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground, ³² and when planted, it grows up and becomes bigger than all the garden plants and makes big branches, so the birds of the heavens are able to nest in its shade.”

³³ With many parables like these, he kept speaking the message to them, as long as they were able to listen. ³⁴ He kept speaking to them only in parables, but among his own students, he explained everything.

³⁵ That day, when it came to be evening, Jesus^l said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.”^{m 36} After leaving the crowd, they took him in the boat as he was, and other boats were with him. ³⁷ It came to be that a large and highly windy storm developed, and the waves were crashing into the boat, so that the boat was already getting full. ³⁸ He was in the stern,ⁿ sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, doesn’t it matter to you that we’ll be killed?”

³⁹ After getting up, he reprimanded the wind and told the sea, “Be quiet! Shut your mouth!” and the wind calmed down, and it became completely still. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you fearful? Don’t you have trust yet?”

⁴¹ They were terrified^o and said to each other, “So, who is this? Because even the wind and the sea listen to him!”