Luke 9:1-17

Christian Standard Bible

Commissioning the Twelve

9 Summoning the Twelve,^(A) he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.^{(B) 2} Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.^(C)

³ “Take nothing for the road,”^(D) he told them, “no staff,^(E) no traveling bag, no bread, no money; and don’t take an extra shirt. ⁴ Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. ⁵ If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”^{(F) 6} So they went out and traveled from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere.

Herod’s Desire to See Jesus

⁷ Herod the tetrarch^(G) heard about everything that was going on.^(H) He was perplexed, because some said that John had been raised from the dead, ⁸ some that Elijah had appeared,^(I) and others that one of the ancient prophets had risen.^{(J) 9} “I beheaded John,” Herod said, “but who is this I hear such things about?” And he wanted to see him.^(K)

Feeding of the Five Thousand

¹⁰ When the apostles returned,^(L) they reported to Jesus all that they had done.^(M) He took them along and withdrew privately to a^[a] town called Bethsaida.^{(N) 11} When the crowds found out, they followed him. He welcomed them,^(O) spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

¹² Late in the day,^(P) the Twelve approached and said to him, “Send the crowd away,^(Q) so that they can go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find food and lodging, because we are in a deserted place here.”

¹³ “You give them something to eat,” he told them.

“We have no more than five loaves^(R) and two fish,” they said, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (For about five thousand men were there.)

Then he told his disciples, “Have them sit down^[b] in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ They did what he said, and had them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,^(S) he blessed and broke them.^(T) He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷ Everyone ate and was filled. They picked up twelve baskets of leftover pieces.