3 "Listen! the Sower once went out to sow,4 and as he sowed, it happened that some seed fell on the road, and birds came and picked it up;5 some other seed fell on stony soil, where it had not much earth; and it sprang up quickly because it had no depth of soil,6 but when the sun rose it was scorched and withered away because it had no root.7 Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked it, so that it yielded no crop.8 But some seed fell into good soil and yielded a crop that sprang up and increased, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.9 "Any one who has ears to hear," he added, "let him listen to this."