13. Therefore I speak to them in parables: ‘Because they look, but do not see.And they listen, but they do not hear, neither do they understand.’
14. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: ‘By hearing, you will hear and shall not understand,and seeing, you will see and shall not perceive;
15. for this people’s heart has grown dull.Their ears have become hard of hearing,and they have closed their eyes,lest they should see with their eyesand hear with their earsand understand with their hearts,and turn, and I should heal them.’
16. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
17. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.
18. “Therefore listen to the parable of the sower.
19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one who received seed beside the path.
20. But he who received the seed on rocky ground is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
21. yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, eventually he falls away.