Matthew 13:11-23

Living Bible

¹¹Then he explained to them that only they were permitted to understand about the Kingdom of Heaven, and others were not.

^12-13“For to him who has will more be given,” he told them, “and he will have great plenty; but from him who has not, even the little he has will be taken away. That is why I use these illustrations, so people will hear and see but not understand.^[a]

¹⁴“This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah:

‘They hear, but don’t understand; they look, but don’t see! ¹⁵For their hearts are fat and heavy, and their ears are dull, and they have closed their eyes in sleep, ¹⁶so they won’t see and hear and understand and turn to God again, and let me heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. ¹⁷Many a prophet and godly man has longed to see what you have seen and hear what you have heard, but couldn’t.

¹⁸“Now here is the explanation of the story I told about the farmer planting grain: ¹⁹The hard path where some of the seeds fell represents the heart of a person who hears the Good News about the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it; then Satan^[b] comes and snatches away the seeds from his heart. ²⁰The shallow, rocky soil represents the heart of a man who hears the message and receives it with real joy, ²¹but he doesn’t have much depth in his life, and the seeds don’t root very deeply, and after a while when trouble comes, or persecution begins because of his beliefs, his enthusiasm fades, and he drops out. ²²The ground covered with thistles represents a man who hears the message, but the cares of this life and his longing for money choke out God’s Word, and he does less and less for God. ²³The good ground represents the heart of a man who listens to the message and understands it and goes out and brings thirty, sixty, or even a hundred others into the Kingdom.”^[c]

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Footnotes

Matthew 13:12 so people will hear and see but not understand. Those who were receptive to spiritual truth understood the illustrations. To others they were only stories without meaning.
Matthew 13:19 Satan, literally, “the evil.”
Matthew 13:23 brings thirty, sixty, or even a hundred others into the Kingdom, literally, “produces a crop many times greater than the amount planted—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much.”