13:8a

There is a contrast here. The contrast is between the seeds which failed to grow in 13:4–7 and the seeds here in 13:8. Some versions indicate this contrast with the conjunction “but.”

Still other seed fell: Translate fell as you did in 13:4b.

good soil: This phrase refers to the kind of soil in which plants grow well.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

fertile soil (New Living Translation (2004))

and produced a crop: There is some implied information here. The implied information is that the seeds on good soil “sprouted and grew into mature plants.” Only then could these plants produce seeds/fruit. In some languages, it may be necessary to make some of this implied information explicit. For example:

where it grew and produced a crop (New Century Version)
-or-

⌊They sprouted and grew⌋ and produced a crop of grain.

produced a crop: The word crop here refers to the seeds/fruit in the mature plants that are ready for harvest.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

produced grain (English Standard Version)
-or-
yielded a ⌊good⌋ harvest
-or-
fruited

13:8b

a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold: The numbers a hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold are the multiple numbers of new seeds/grain that the mature plants produced. For each seed that was sown, that much more was produced from it. Some plants produced heads of grain that had a hundred seeds. Other plants produced heads that had sixty seeds. Some plants produced heads with thirty seeds.

Each of these numbers represents good harvests of various sizes. If this is not clear to your readers, you may want to indicate that these numbers are relative. For example:

⌊such as⌋ thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times
-or-

⌊for example⌋ thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times

You may also want to add a footnote. For example:

All of these were very good harvests. The average amount that people harvested in the provinces of Galilee and Judea at that time was ten seeds for every seed that was sown.

Here are some other ways to translate these numbers:

• Use numerals or number words from the major language in the area. For example:

⌊such as⌋ 30, 60, or even 100 times

• Use descriptive words instead of numbers. For example:

a good harvest, a great harvest, and an amazing harvest

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