And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Other fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it, and choked it.
- KJV And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.
- BSB Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the seedlings.
- NASB Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.
- NLT Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Seed among thorns is choked as the thorns grow up with it. It pictures the word smothered by competing concerns.
Overview
The third soil yields plants that are strangled by thorns growing alongside. Jesus later identifies the thorns as the cares, riches, and pleasures of life. The image warns that a divided heart, crowded with rival affections, never brings the word to fruitfulness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jer 4:3For Yahweh says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.
- Luke 8:14That which fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
- Mark 4:7Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
- Luke 21:34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
- Heb 6:7–8For the land which has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and produces a crop suitable for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God;
- Matt 13:7Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.
- Mark 4:18–19Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,
- Matt 13:22What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
- Gen 3:18It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 8:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.