Perfect Love

³¹ And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) ³² And they went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Men Fed

³³ The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.³⁵ And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “This place is secluded and it is already late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ But He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ And He ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied; ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces of bread, and of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

Jesus Walks on the Water

⁴⁵ And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Himto the other side, to Bethsaida, while He Himself *dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ And after saying goodbye to them, He left for the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷ When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ Seeing them straining at the oars—for the wind was against them—at about the fourth watch of the night, He *came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. ⁴⁹ But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out; ⁵⁰ for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and *said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, ⁵² for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

Healing at Gennesaret

⁵³ When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored at the shore. ⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, immediately the peoplerecognized Him, ⁵⁵ and ran about that entire country and began carrying here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to wherever they heard He was. ⁵⁶ And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or a countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and all who touched it were being healed.

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation