SEV Biblia, Chapter 13:13
Por eso les habl por parbolas; porque viendo no ven, y oyendo no oyen, ni entienden.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 13:13
Verse 13. Therefore speak I to them in parables] On this account, viz. to lead them into a proper knowledge of God. I speak to them in parables, natural representations of spiritual truths, that they may be allured to inquire, and to find out the spirit, which is hidden under the letter; because, seeing the miracles which I have wrought, they see not, i.e. the end for which I have wrought them; and hearing my doctrines, they hear not, so as to profit by what is spoken; neither do they understand, oude suniousi, they do not lay their hearts to it. Is not this obviously our Lord's meaning? Who can suppose that he would employ his time in speaking enigmatically to them, on purpose that they might not understand what was spoken? Could the God of truth and sincerity act thus? If he had designed to act otherwise, he might have saved his time and labour, and not spoken at all, which would have answered the same end, viz. to leave them in gross ignorance.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 13. Therefore speak I to them in parables , etc.] Because it was the will and pleasure of his Father to give the knowledge of divine mysteries to some, and not to others; and because even the outward good things they had, being wrongly used or abused by them, would be taken away from them: and because they seeing, see not : they saw Christ with their bodily eyes, but not with an eye of faith; they saw the miracles he did, but did not discern, at least did not acknowledge the evidence of them, proving him to be the true Messiah. And hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand : they heard externally, but not internally; they heard the sound of Christs voice, but did not understand his words, even when he spake in the plainest and most intelligible manner; nor were they concerned to know the meaning of them: wherefore he spoke to them in this abstruse and parabolical way, that they might be what they really were, seers and not seers, hearers and not hearers, at least not understanding ones; and that what he said might remain sealed and hidden to them, as the things contained in the sealed book were to the Jews of old; the reason of which was, as a writer of theirs says, and which agrees with our Lords reason and conduct here, hdyjw lmb wyh , because they were in parable and riddle.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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 outwar 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 mor plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time mor difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant. The parabl of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower in our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to 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 fort no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. S it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters are her described by four sorts of ground. Careless, trifling hearers, are a 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, i we take not care to keep it. Hypocrites, like the stony ground, ofte get the start of true Christians in the shows of profession. Many ar 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 abidin 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 easie system. Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for they came i 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 chok the good seed. What distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. But these true Christians are distinguished from hypocrites. Christ does no say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but non that could hinder its fruitfulness. All are not alike; we should aim a 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.
Greek Textus Receptus
δια 1223 PREP τουτο 5124 D-ASN εν 1722 PREP παραβολαις 3850 N-DPF αυτοις 846 P-DPM λαλω 2980 5719 V-PAI-1S οτι 3754 CONJ βλεποντες 991 5723 V-PAP-NPM ου 3756 PRT-N βλεπουσιν 991 5719 V-PAI-3P και 2532 CONJ ακουοντες 191 5723 V-PAP-NPM ουκ 3756 PRT-N ακουουσιν 191 5719 V-PAI-3P ουδε 3761 ADV συνιουσιν 4920 5719 V-PAI-3P
Robertson's NT Word Studies
13:13 {Because seeing} (hoti blepontes). In the parallel passages in #Mr 4:12 and #Lu 8:10 we find hina with the subjunctive. this does not necessarily mean that in Mark and Luke hina=hoti with the causal sense, though a few rare instances of such usage may be found in late Greek. For a discussion of the problem see my chapter on "The Causal Use of _Hina_" in _Studies in Early Christianity_ (1928) edited by Prof. S.J. Case. Here in Matthew we have first "an adaptation of #Isa 6:9f. which is quoted in full in v. #14f." (McNeile). Thus Matthew presents "a striking paradox, 'though they see, they do not (really) see'" (McNeile). Cf. #Joh 9:41. The idiom here in Matthew gives no trouble save in comparison with Mark and Luke which will be discussed in due turn. The form suniousin is an omega verb form (suniw) rather than the mi verb (suniemi) as is common in the _Koin_.
