Mark 4:10–18

¹⁰When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.↗

¹¹He said to them,“To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,↗

¹²that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”↗

¹³He said to them,“Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?↗

¹⁴The farmer sows the word.↗

¹⁵The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.↗

¹⁶These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.↗

¹⁷They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.↗

¹⁸Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,↗