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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Mark 4 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/mark/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/mark/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Mark 4</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../mark/3.htm" title="Mark 3">◄</a> Mark 4 <a href="../mark/5.htm" title="Mark 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/mark/4.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">The Parable of the Sower</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span><span class="red">“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span><span class="red">As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span><span class="red">Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span><span class="red">But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span><span class="red">Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span><span class="red">Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”</span></p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Then Jesus said, <span class="red">“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”</span></p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>He told them, <span class="red">“The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span><span class="red">so that,</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line1"><span class="red">“ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,</span></p><p class="line2"><span class="red">and ever hearing but never understanding;</span></p><p class="line1"><span class="red">otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Isaiah 6:9,10">a</a></sup></span> ”</span></p></div> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Then Jesus said to them, <span class="red">“Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span><span class="red">The farmer sows the word.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span><span class="red">Some 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.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span><span class="red">Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span><span class="red">But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span><span class="red">Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span><span class="red">but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span><span class="red">Others, 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.”</span></p> <p class="sectionhead">A Lamp on a Stand</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>He said to them, <span class="red">“Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span><span class="red">For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span><span class="red">If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”</span></p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span><span class="red">“Consider carefully what you hear,”</span> he continued. <span class="red">“With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span><span class="red">Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”</span></p> <p class="sectionhead">The Parable of the Growing Seed</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>He also said, <span class="red">“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span><span class="red">Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span><span class="red">All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span><span class="red">As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”</span></p> <p class="sectionhead">The Parable of the Mustard Seed</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Again he said, <span class="red">“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span><span class="red">It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth.</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span><span class="red">Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”</span></p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Jesus Calms the Storm</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, <span class="red">“Let us go over to the other side.”</span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, <span class="red">“Quiet! Be still!”</span> Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>He said to his disciples, <span class="red">“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”</span></p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/4-41.htm"><b>41</b></a></span>They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">12</span> <span class="footnotebot">Isaiah 6:9,10</span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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