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.

Some seeds fell by the way side - The hard beaten path, where no plough had broken up the ground.

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. The seed-time in Palestine is usually in October, about the time when this parable was spoken. Sowing is always done by hand.
Fell by the wayside. Where the field and the road join, or, rather, along the narrow, trodden foot-path through the fields, so common in Palestine.
Fowls devoured them. The birds, because the grains were not covered.

And while he sowed, some seeds fell by the highway side, and the birds came and devoured them - It is observable, that our Lord points out the grand hinderances of our bearing fruit, in the same order as they occur. The first danger is, that the birds will devour the seed. If it escape this, there is then another danger, namely, lest it be scorched, and wither away. It is long after this that the thorns spring up and choke the good seed. A vast majority of those who hear the word of God, receive the seed as by the highway side. Of those who do not lose it by the birds, yet many receive it as on stony places. Many of them who receive it in a better soil, yet suffer the thorns to grow up, and choke it: so that few even of these endure to the end, and bear fruit unto perfection: yet in all these cases, it is not the will of God that hinders, but their own voluntary perverseness.