Jesus Heals a Paralytic

2 And when he returned to ^(A)Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. ^3 (B)And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. ⁴ And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, ^(C)they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ And when Jesus ^(D)saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, ^(E)your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak like that? ^(F)He is blaspheming! ^(G)Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ And immediately Jesus, ^(H)perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that ^(I)the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” ¹² And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and ^(J)glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

Jesus Calls Levi

¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and ^(K)all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. ^14 (L)And as he passed by, he saw ^(M)Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many ^(N)tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ And ^(O)the scribes of^[a] the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ^(P)“Why does he eat^[b] with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ^(Q)I came not to call the righteous, ^(R)but sinners.”

A Question About Fasting

¹⁸ Now ^(S)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^(T)“Why do John's disciples and ^(U)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, ^(V)“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ^20 (W)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(X)then they will fast in that day. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² And no one puts new wine into old ^(Y)wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”^[c]

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

^23 (Z)One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples ^(AA)began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴ And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, ^(AB)why are they doing ^(AC)what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵ And he said to them, ^(AD)“Have you never read ^(AE)what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: ²⁶ how he entered the house of God, in the time of^{[d] (AF)}Abiathar the high priest, and ate ^(AG)the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” ²⁷ And he said to them, ^(AH)“The Sabbath was made for man, ^(AI)not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ So ^(AJ)the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand

3 ^(AK)Again ^(AL)he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. ² And ^(AM)they watched Jesus,^[e] to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” ⁴ And he said to them, ^(AN)“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ And he ^(AO)looked around at them with anger, grieved at ^(AP)their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” ^(AQ)He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ^6 (AR)The Pharisees went out and immediately ^(AS)held counsel with ^(AT)the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

A Great Crowd Follows Jesus

^7 (AU)Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ^(AV)a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea ⁸ and Jerusalem and ^(AW)Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around ^(AX)Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. ⁹ And he told his disciples to ^(AY)have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they ^(AZ)crush him, ¹⁰ for ^(BA)he had healed many, so that all who had ^(BB)diseases pressed around him ^(BC)to touch him. ^11 (BD)And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they ^(BE)fell down before him and cried out, “You are ^(BF)the Son of God.” ¹² And ^(BG)he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The Twelve Apostles

^13 (BH)And he went up on the mountain and called to him those ^(BI)whom he desired, and they came to him. ^14 (BJ)And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach ^15 (BK)and have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶ He appointed the twelve: ^(BL)Simon (to whom ^(BM)he gave the name Peter); ^17 (BN)James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and ^(BO)Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,^{[f] 19} and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

²⁰ Then he went ^(BP)home, and the crowd gathered again, ^(BQ)so that they could not even eat. ^21 (BR)And when ^(BS)his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He ^(BT)is out of his mind.”

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

²² And ^(BU)the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ^(BV)“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” ^23 (BW)And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. ²⁷ But ^(BX)no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. ^(BY)Then indeed he may plunder his house.

^28 (BZ)“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹ but whoever ^(CA)blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

^31 (CB)And his mother and his ^(CC)brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. ³² And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers^[g] are outside, seeking you.” ³³ And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ And ^(CD)looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ^35 (CE)For whoever ^(CF)does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Abijam Reigns in Judah

15 ^(A)Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. ² He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ³ And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and ^(B)his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father. ⁴ Nevertheless, for David's sake the Lord his God gave him ^(C)a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, ⁵ because ^(D)David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, ^(E)except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. ^6 (F)Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ^7 (G)The rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^(H)And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ^8 (I)And Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place.

Asa Reigns in Judah

⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah, ¹⁰ and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ^11 (J)And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done. ¹² He put away the ^(K)male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed ^(L)all the idols that his fathers had made. ^13 (M)He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her image and ^(N)burned it at the brook Kidron. ^14 (O)But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, ^(P)the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days. ¹⁵ And ^(Q)he brought into the house of the Lord the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.

^16 (R)And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ^17 (S)Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and ^(T)built Ramah, ^(U)that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and the gold ^(V)that were left in the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house and gave them into the hands of his servants. ^(W)And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ^(X)who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let there be ^(Y)a covenant^[a] between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” ²⁰ And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel and conquered ^(Z)Ijon, ^(AA)Dan, ^(AB)Abel-beth-maacah, and all ^(AC)Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ And when Baasha heard of it, ^(AD)he stopped building Ramah, and he lived in ^(AE)Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, none was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building, and with them King Asa built ^(AF)Geba of Benjamin and ^(AG)Mizpah. ^23 (AH)Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴ And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and ^(AI)Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Nadab Reigns in Israel

^25 (AJ)Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord ^(AK)and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin ^(AL)which he made Israel to sin.

^27 (AM)Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha struck him down at ^(AN)Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸ So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah and reigned in his place. ²⁹ And as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, ^(AO)according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. ³⁰ It was for the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned and ^(AP)that he made Israel to sin, and because of the anger to which he provoked the Lord, the God of Israel.

³¹ Now the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ^32 (AQ)And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

Baasha Reigns in Israel

³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel at Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord ^(AR)and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

A Song. A Psalm of ^(A)the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to ^(B)Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil^[a] of ^(C)Heman the Ezrahite.