(4) The way side—i.e., on the skirts of the broad path that crossed the field. Here the surface was hard and smooth, the grain lay on the surface, the pigeons and other birds that followed the sower reaped an immediate harvest.

Matthew 13:4-9. When he sowed, some seeds fell by the way-side — By the side of a beaten path which lay through the ground he was sowing. This wayside being neither broken up by the plough nor hedged in, the seed that fell here lay uncovered, and was partly trodden down, and partly devoured by the fowls, Luke 8:5, so that no fruit could be expected. Some fell upon stony places, επι τα πετρωδη, upon rocky places. Luke says, επι την πετραν, upon the rock; where they had not much earth — Either above them to retard their springing, or under them to nourish their roots; and forthwith, ευθεως, speedily, they sprung up, and looked very promising. And when the sun was up, and shone hot upon them, that is, upon the tender blades, they were scorched by the warmth of his beams, and because they had no root — No room for taking root in so shallow a bed of earth, and lacked moisture, (so Luke,) they withered away and perished. Observe, if they had had sufficient depth of earth, wherein to take root, and had not lacked moisture, the heat of the sun, however great, would not have caused them to wither, but rather would have promoted their growth. And some fell among thorns — Under the word thorns is included brambles, thistles, and every other kind of weed which is apt to spring up among corn, and to prevent its growth and fruitfulness. Weeds, of whatever kind, do not usually appear immediately when the corn is sown, nor perhaps till long after. The corn takes root, springs up, and perhaps even covers the ground, and bids fair for a plentiful crop, before they make their appearance: but as they are the natural product of the soil, they thrive better and grow faster than the corn, and soon overtop it. And, if they be suffered to remain, they absorb the moisture, and exhaust the fertilizing virtue of the ground; they also shade the corn from the kindly influences of the sun and rain, and so choke it that it has not room to expand itself. It therefore gradually declines, and at last dies away, and renders the husbandman’s labour, and the seed sown, fruitless. But other, the rest of the seed, fell into good ground, soft and ploughed up, not hard, unbroken, and trodden down, like a way-side; not a rocky place, but a deep soil; not a bed of thorns, brambles, and weeds, but ground purged of all such obstructions to fertility; and brought forth fruit — Being deeply rooted and nourished, it grew, and increased so as not only to produce an ear, but full and ripe corn in the ear, and that in rich abundance; some of it thirty times as much as the seed sown, some sixty, and some even a hundred times as much. Who hath ears to hear, let him — A proverbial expression used by our Lord, when he spake of things of very great importance, and which deserved peculiar attention. Such were the things now declared; they merited, and will merit, the most serious consideration of all who would not be forgetful or unfruitful hearers of the word of God, but would bring forth fruit worthy of their privileges.

13:1-23 Jesus entered into a boat that he might be the less pressed, and be the better heard by the people. By this he teaches us in the outward circumstances of worship not to covet that which is stately, but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us. Christ taught in parables. Thereby the things of God were made more plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant. The parable of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters are here described by four sorts of ground. Careless, trifling hearers, are an easy prey to Satan; who, as he is the great murderer of souls, so he is the great thief of sermons, and will be sure to rob us of the word, if we take not care to keep it. Hypocrites, like the stony ground, often get the start of true Christians in the shows of profession. Many are glad to hear a good sermon, who do not profit by it. They are told of free salvation, of the believer's privileges, and the happiness of heaven; and, without any change of heart, without any abiding conviction of their own depravity, their need of a Saviour, or the excellence of holiness, they soon profess an unwarranted assurance. But when some heavy trial threatens them, or some sinful advantage may be had, they give up or disguise their profession, or turn to some easier system. Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse; they are good in their place to stop a gap, but a man must be well armed that has much to do with them; they are entangling, vexing, scratching, and their end is to be burned, Heb 6:8. Worldly cares are great hinderances to our profiting by the word of God. The deceitfulness of riches does the mischief; they cannot be said to deceive us unless we put our trust in them, then they choke the good seed. What distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. By this true Christians are distinguished from hypocrites. Christ does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but none that could hinder its fruitfulness. All are not alike; we should aim at the highest, to bring forth most fruit. The sense of hearing cannot be better employed than in hearing God's word; and let us look to ourselves that we may know what sort of hearers we are.Some seeds fell by the way-side - That is, the hard "path" or headland, which the plow had not touched, and where there was no opportunity for it to sink into the earth.3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, &c.—These parables are SEVEN in number; and it is not a little remarkable that while this is the sacred number, the first FOUR of them were spoken to the mixed multitude, while the remaining THREE were spoken to the Twelve in private—these divisions, four and three, being themselves notable in the symbolical arithmetic of Scripture. Another thing remarkable in the structure of these parables is, that while the first of the Seven—that of the Sower—is of the nature of an Introduction to the whole, the remaining Six consist of three pairs—the Second and Seventh, the Third and Fourth, and the Fifth and Sixth, corresponding to each other; each pair setting forth the same general truths, but with a certain diversity of aspect. All this can hardly be accidental.

First Parable: The Sower (Mt 13:3-9, 18-23).

This parable may be entitled, The Effect of the Word Dependent on the State of the Heart. For the exposition of this parable, see on [1286]Mr 4:1-9, 14-20.

Reason for Teaching in Parables (Mt 13:10-17).

See Poole on "Matthew 13:9".

And when he sowed,.... Or, "as he sowed", as the other evangelists; that is, "whilst he was sowing",

some seeds fell; either out of his hand, or out of the cart drawn by oxen; hence the (c) Talmudists distinguish between , "the falling of the hand", or what falls out of the hand; and "the falling of the oxen", or what falls from them; where the gloss is,

"in some places they sow the grain with the hand; and in other places they put the seed on a cart full of holes, and oxen draw the cart on the ploughed land, and it falls upon it.''

By the wayside; by the common road, or private paths, which led through corn fields, in which Christ and his disciples walked, Matthew 12:1 and which being beaten and trodden hard, the seed must lie open on it, and so be liable to be trampled upon by men, or devoured by the fowls of the air; and designs such hearers as are careless, negligent, and inattentive, who hear without understanding, judgment, and affection; see Matthew 13:19

and the fowls came and devoured them; the other evangelists say, "the fowls of the air"; and so the Vulgate Latin, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and some copies; and mean the devils; so called, because their habitation is in the air; hence they are said to be "the power of the air": and because of their ravenous and devouring nature, their swiftness to do mischief, and their flocking in multitudes, where the word is preached, to hinder its usefulness, as fowls do, where seed is sowing. Satan, and his principalities, and powers, rove about in the air, come down on earth, and seek whom they may devour, and often mix themselves in religious assemblies, to do what mischief they can; see Job 1:6.

(c) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 105. 2.

And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: