The Bread of the Tabernacle

⁵ “And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve ^(A)cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. ⁶ You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, ^(B)on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷ And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a ^(C)memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord. ^8 (D)Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. ⁹ And ^(E)it shall be for Aaron and his sons, ^(F)and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”

David and the Holy Bread

21 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And ^(A)Ahimelech was ^(B)afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”

² So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. ³ Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”

⁴ And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ^[a]common bread on hand; but there is ^(C)holy^[b] bread, ^(D)if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”

⁵ Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And ^[c]the ^(E)vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated ^(F)in the vessel this day.”

⁶ So the priest ^(G)gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread ^(H)which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.

Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting^(A)

^18 (B)The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, “Can the ^[a]friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be ^(C)taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath^(D)

^23 (E)Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began ^(F)to pluck the heads of grain. ²⁴ And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is ^(G)not lawful on the Sabbath?”

²⁵ But He said to them, “Have you never read ^(H)what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: ²⁶ how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, ^(I)which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”

²⁷ And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the ^(J)Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore ^(K)the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Healing on the Sabbath^(L)

3 And ^(M)He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² So they ^(N)watched Him closely, whether He would ^(O)heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might ^[b]accuse Him. ³ And He said to the man who had the withered hand, ^[c]“Step forward.” ⁴ Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. ⁵ And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the ^(P)hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored ^[d]as whole as the other. ^6 (Q)Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with ^(R)the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

A Great Multitude Follows Jesus^(S)

⁷ But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, ^(T)and from Judea ⁸ and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how ^(U)many things He was doing, came to Him. ⁹ So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him. ¹⁰ For He healed ^(V)many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to ^(W)touch Him. ^11 (X)And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, ^(Y)“You are the Son of God.” ¹² But ^(Z)He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.

¹¹ The Pharisee ^(A)stood and prayed thus with himself, ^(B)‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ ¹³ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

Fasting to Be Seen Only by God

¹⁶ “Moreover, ^(A)when you fast, do not be like the ^[a]hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ¹⁷ But you, when you fast, ^(B)anoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you ^[b]openly.