14The farmer sows the word.
15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.
17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;
19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
A Lamp on a Stand
21He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?
22For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.
23If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
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