John Gill Commentary Matthew 13:8

"and others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." — Matthew 13:8 (ASV)

But others fell into good ground
Not beaten and trodden by the feet of men, nor stony, nor thorny, but well broke up, manured, and tilled; which designs good, honest hearted hearers who become so by the Spirit and grace of God; who with a spiritual understanding, experience, savour, and relish, what they hear; see (Matthew 13:23)

and brought forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some
thirty fold :
some seeds produced an hundred, others sixty, and others thirty. The first of these especially was a large increase, but what was sometimes had, and which Isaac received in Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, (Genesis 26:12) and is what Pliny says ^F7 of Byzacium, a country of the Lybiphoenicians, that it yielded an hundred fold to its husbandmen; and of such fruitfulness was the land of Israel, of which the Jewish doctors say some things incredible: they tell us a story ^F8 of one that sowed a measure of vetches, or pease, (Nyao twam) (vlv hvew) , "and it produced three hundred measures"; they say unto him, the Lord has begun to bless you''

Here, in the parable, these various increases intend the different degrees of fruitfulness in gracious souls; for though the fruits of grace, in believers, are of the same quality, yet not of the same quantity. Some believers are grown to a greater maturity than others; some are but little children, some are young men, some are fathers.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Nat. Hist. 1. 5. c. 4.
• F8: T. Hieros. Peah, fol. 20. 2.