13
This is why I speak to them this way. They see, but they're blind. They hear, but they don't listen. They don't even try to understand.
14
So they make Isaiah's prophecy come true: 'You will hear clearly but never understand. You will see clearly but never comprehend.
15
These people have become close-minded and hard of hearing. They have shut their eyes so that their eyes never see. Their ears never hear. Their minds never understand. And they never return to me for healing!'
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"Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear.
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I can guarantee this truth: Many prophets and many of God's people longed to see what you see but didn't see it, to hear what you hear but didn't hear it.
18
"Listen to what the story about the farmer means.
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Someone hears the word about the kingdom but doesn't understand it. The evil one comes at once and snatches away what was planted in him. This is what the seed planted along the road illustrates.
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The seed planted on rocky ground [is the person who] hears the word and accepts it at once with joy.
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Since he doesn't have any root, he lasts only a little while. When suffering or persecution comes along because of the word, he immediately falls [from faith].
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The seed planted among thornbushes [is another person who] hears the word. But the worries of life and the deceitful pleasures of riches choke the word so that it can't produce anything.
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But the seed planted on good ground [is the person who] hears and understands the word. This type produces crops. They produce one hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much as was planted."