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Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.
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He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said:
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“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
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As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
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Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
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But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
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Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.
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Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
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Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”