Mark 4 - 5 — Legacy Standard Bible

The Parable of the Sower

4^aAnd He began to teach again ^bby the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that ^cHe got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. ²And He was teaching them many things in ^aparables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³“Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; ⁴and it happened that as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵“And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. ⁶“And after the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷“And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no ¹crop. ⁸“And other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they were yielding a ¹crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” ⁹And He was saying, “^aHe who has ears to hear, ¹let him hear.”

¹⁰And when He was alone, ¹His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. ¹¹And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to ^athose who are outside, everything comes ^bin parables, ¹²so that ^awhile seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven.”

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹³^aAnd He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴“The sower sows the word. ¹⁵“And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately ^aSatan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. ¹⁶“And in a similar way, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places: those who, when hearing the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷and they have no root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they ¹fall away. ¹⁸“And others are those being sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹but the worries of ^athe ¹world, and the ^bdeceitfulness of riches, and the desires for anything else enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰“And those are the ones which were sown on the good soil: they who hear the word and accept it and ^aare bearing fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

²¹And He was saying to them, “^aIs a lamp brought to be put under a ¹basket or under a bed? Is it not to be put on the lampstand? ²²“^aFor nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. ²³“^aIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴And He was saying to them, “Beware what you listen to. ¹^,^aBy your standard of measure it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you. ²⁵“^aFor whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

The Parable of the Seed

²⁶And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; ²⁷and he sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. ²⁸“The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. ²⁹“But when the grain ¹is ripe, he immediately ²^,^aputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰^aAnd He was saying, “How shall we ^bcompare the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹“It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is ¹smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes ¹largest of all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that ^athe birds of the ²air can nest under its shade.”

³³And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴and He was not speaking to them ^awithout a parable; but He was ^bexplaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Calms a Storm

³⁵^aAnd on that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶¹And leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them ^ain the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷And a great windstorm *arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸And Jesus Himself was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion; and they *got Him up and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹And He woke up and ^arebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still.” And the wind died down and ¹it became ²perfectly calm. ⁴⁰And He said to them, “Why are you so cowardly? ^aDo you still have no faith?” ⁴¹And they became ¹very afraid and were saying to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Jesus Saves a Man with Many Demons

5^aThen they came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes. ²And when He got out of ^athe boat, immediately a man from the tombs ^bwith an unclean spirit met Him, ³who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; ⁴because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵And constantly, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out and gashing himself with stones. ⁶And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; ⁷and crying out with a loud voice, he *said, “¹^,^aWhat do I have to do with You, Jesus, ^bSon of ^cthe Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” ⁸For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is ^aLegion; for we are many.” ¹⁰And he began pleading with Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. ¹¹Now there was a large herd of swine feeding ¹nearby on the mountain. ¹²And the demons pleaded with Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” ¹³And Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴And their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵And they *came to Jesus and *observed the ^ademon-possessed man sitting down, ^bclothed and ^cin his right mind, the very man who had the “^dlegion”; and they became frightened. ¹⁶And those who had seen it recounted to them how this had happened to the ^ademon-possessed man, and all about the swine. ¹⁷And they began to ^aplead with Him to leave their region. ¹⁸^aAnd as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been ^bdemon-possessed was pleading with Him that he might ¹accompany Him. ¹⁹And He did not let him, but He *said to him, “^aGo home to your people and report to them ¹what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” ²⁰And he went away and began to ^apreach in the ^bDecapolis ¹what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was marveling.

Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus’ Daughter

²¹^aAnd when Jesus had crossed over again in ^bthe boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He ¹stayed ^cby the seashore. ²²^aAnd one of ^bthe synagogue ¹officials named Jairus *came up, and on seeing Him, *fell at His feet ²³and *pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come, that by coming, ^aYou may lay Your hands on her, so that she will ¹be saved and live.” ²⁴And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

²⁵And a woman—who had a hemorrhage for twelve years ²⁶and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— ²⁷after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment. ²⁸For she was saying, “If I just touch His garments, I will ¹be saved from this.” ²⁹And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she knew within her body that she had been healed of her ^aaffliction. ³⁰And immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that ^athe power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and was saying, “Who touched My garments?” ³¹And His disciples were saying to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” ³²And He was looking around to see the woman who had done this. ³³But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴And He said to her, “Daughter, ^ayour faith has ¹saved you; ^bgo in peace and be healed of your ^caffliction.”

³⁵While He was still speaking, they *came from the house of the ^asynagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” ³⁶But Jesus, overhearing what had been spoken, *said to the ^asynagogue official, “^bDo not be afraid, only ¹believe.” ³⁷And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except ^aPeter and James and John the brother of James. ³⁸And they *came to the house of the ^asynagogue official; and He *saw a commotion, and people loudly crying and wailing. ³⁹And entering in, He *said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and crying? The child has not died, but is asleep.” ⁴⁰And they began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He *took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and *entered the room where the child was. ⁴¹And taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, ^aI say to you, arise!”). ⁴²And immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. ⁴³And He ^agave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that some food should be given to her to eat.