Mark 4-5 (Amplified Bible)

Mark 4

 ¹AGAIN JESUS began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore.

    ²And He taught them many things in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), and in His teaching He said to them:

    ³Give attention to this! Behold, a sower went out to sow.

    ⁴And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

    ⁵Other seed [of the same kind] fell on ground full of rocks, where it had not much soil; and at once it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil;

    ⁶And when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had not taken root, it withered away.

    ⁷Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain.

    ⁸And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown.

    ⁹And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him be hearing [and let him ^[a]consider, and comprehend].

    ¹⁰And as soon as He was alone, those who were around Him, with the Twelve [apostles], began to ask Him about the parables.

    ¹¹And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, ^[b]the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [^[c]of our circle] everything becomes a parable,

    ¹²In order that they may [indeed] look and look but not see and perceive, and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, ^[d]lest haply they should turn again, and it [^[e]their willful rejection of the truth] should be forgiven them.^(A)

    ¹³And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?

    ¹⁴The sower sows the Word.

    ¹⁵The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them.

    ¹⁶And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy;

    ¹⁷And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away.

    ¹⁸And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word;

    ¹⁹Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.

    ²⁰And those sown on the good (well-adapted) soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit--some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some [even] a hundred times as much.

    ²¹And He said to them, Is the lamp brought in to be put under a ^[f]peck measure or under a bed, and not [to be put] on the lampstand?

    ²²[^[g]Things are hidden temporarily only as a means to revelation.] For there is nothing hidden except to be revealed, nor is anything [temporarily] kept secret except in order that it may be made known.

    ²³If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend.

    ²⁴And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure ^[h][of thought and study] you give [to ^[i]the truth you hear] will be the measure ^[j][of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you--and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.

    ²⁵For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away [^[k]by force],

    ²⁶And He said, The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground,

    ²⁷And then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and ^[l]increases--he knows not how.

    ²⁸The earth produces [acting] by itself--first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

    ²⁹But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he ^[m]sends forth [the reapers] and puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready.

    ³⁰And He said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use to illustrate and explain it?

    ³¹It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all seeds upon the earth;

    ³²Yet after it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all garden herbs and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air are able to make nests and dwell in its shade.

    ³³With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the Word to them, as they were able to hear and ^[n]to comprehend and understand.

    ³⁴He did not tell them anything without a parable; but privately to His disciples (^[o]those who were peculiarly His own) He explained everything [fully].

    ³⁵On that same day [when] evening had come, He said to them, Let us go over to the other side [of the lake].

    ³⁶And leaving the throng, they took Him with them, [just] as He was, in the boat [in which He was sitting]. And other boats were with Him.

    ³⁷And a furious storm of wind [^[p]of hurricane proportions] arose, and the waves kept beating into the boat, so that it was already becoming filled.

    ³⁸But He [Himself] was in the stern [of the boat], asleep on the [leather] cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, Master, do You not care that we are perishing?

    ³⁹And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still (muzzled)! And the wind ceased (^[q]sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm (^[r]a perfect peacefulness).

    ⁴⁰He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no ^[s]firmly relying trust)?

    ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and ^[t]feared exceedingly and said one to another, Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him?

   

Mark 5

 ¹THEY CAME to the other side of the sea to the region of the Gerasenes.

    ²And as soon as He got out of the boat, there met Him out of the tombs a man [under the power] of an unclean spirit.

    ³This man ^[u]continually lived among the tombs, and no one could subdue him any more, even with a chain;

    ⁴For he had been bound often with shackles for the feet and ^[v]handcuffs, but the handcuffs of [light] chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he rubbed and ground together and broke in pieces; and no one had strength enough to restrain or tame him.

    ⁵Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always ^[w]shrieking and screaming and ^[x]beating and bruising and ^[y]cutting himself with stones.

    ⁶And when from a distance he saw Jesus, he ran and fell on his knees before Him in homage,

    ⁷And crying out with a loud voice, he said, What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? [What is there in common between us?] I ^[z]solemnly implore you by God, do not begin to torment me!

    ⁸For Jesus was commanding, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!

    ⁹And He asked him, What is your name? He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many.

    ¹⁰And he kept begging Him urgently not to send them [himself and the other demons] away out of that region.

    ¹¹Now a great herd of hogs was grazing there on the hillside.

    ¹²And the demons begged Him, saying, Send us to the hogs, that we may go into them!

    ¹³So He gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out [of the man] and entered into the hogs; and the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed headlong down the steep slope into the sea and were drowned in the sea.

    ¹⁴The hog feeders ran away, and told [it] in the town and in the country. And [the people] came to see what it was that had taken place.

    ¹⁵And they came to Jesus and looked intently and searchingly at the man who had been a demoniac, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, [the same man] who had had the legion [of demons]; and they were ^[aa]seized with alarm and struck with fear.

    ¹⁶And those who had seen it related in full what had happened to the man possessed by demons and to the hogs.

    ¹⁷And they began to beg [Jesus] to leave their neighborhood.

    ¹⁸And when He had stepped into the boat, the man who had been controlled by the unclean spirits kept begging Him that he might be with Him.

    ¹⁹But Jesus refused to permit him, but said to him, Go home to your own [family and relatives and friends] and bring back word to them of how much the Lord has done for you, and [how He has] had sympathy for you and mercy on you.

    ²⁰And he departed and began to publicly proclaim in Decapolis [the region of the ten cities] how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were astonished and marveled.^(B)

    ²¹And when Jesus had recrossed in the boat to the other side, a great throng gathered about Him, and He was at the lakeshore.

    ²²Then one of the rulers of the synagogue came up, Jairus by name; and seeing Him, he prostrated himself at His feet

    ²³And begged Him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed and live.

    ²⁴And Jesus went with him; and a great crowd kept following Him and pressed Him ^[ab]from all sides [so as almost to suffocate Him].

    ²⁵And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years,

    ²⁶And who had endured much ^[ac]suffering under [the hands of] many physicians and had spent all that she had, and was no better but instead grew worse.

    ²⁷She had heard the reports concerning Jesus, and she came up behind Him in the throng and touched His garment,

    ²⁸For she kept saying, If I only touch His garments, I shall be restored to health.

    ²⁹And immediately her flow of blood was dried up at the source, and [^[ad]suddenly] she felt in her body that she was healed of her [^[ae]distressing] ailment.

    ³⁰And Jesus, recognizing in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around immediately in the crowd and said, Who touched My clothes?

    ³¹And the disciples kept saying to Him, You see the crowd pressing hard around You ^[af]from all sides, and You ask, Who touched Me?

    ³²Still He kept looking around to see her who had done it.

    ³³But the woman, knowing what had been done for her, though alarmed and frightened and trembling, fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.

    ³⁴And He said to her, Daughter, your faith (your ^[ag]trust and confidence in Me, springing from faith in God) has restored you to health. Go in ^[ah](into) peace and be continually healed and freed from your [^[ai]distressing bodily] disease.

    ³⁵While He was still speaking, there came some from the ruler's house, who said [to Jairus], Your daughter has died. Why bother and distress the Teacher any further?

    ^36[aj]Overhearing but ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear; only keep on believing.

    ³⁷And He permitted no one to accompany Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.

    ³⁸When they arrived at the house of the ruler of the synagogue, He ^[ak]looked [carefully and with understanding] at [the] tumult and the people weeping and wailing loudly.

    ³⁹And when He had gone in, He said to them, Why do you make an uproar and weep? The little girl is not dead but is sleeping.

    ⁴⁰And they laughed and ^[al]jeered at Him. But He put them all out, and, taking the child's father and mother and those who were with Him, He went in where the little girl was lying.

    ⁴¹Gripping her [firmly] by the hand, He said to her, Talitha cumi--which translated is, Little girl, I say to you, arise [^[am]from the sleep of death]!

    ⁴²And instantly the girl got up and started walking around--for she was twelve years old. And they were utterly astonished and overcome with amazement.

    ⁴³And He strictly commanded and warned them that no one should know this, and He [^[an]expressly] told them to give her [something] to eat.