4 Hear this word, you cows [women] of Bashan who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, Bring and let us drink!^(A)

² The Lord God has sworn by His holiness that behold, the days shall come upon you when they shall take you away with hooks and the last of you with fishhooks.^(B)

³ And you shall go out through the breaches [made in the city’s wall], every [woman] straight before her, and you shall be cast forth into Harmon [an unknown place of exile], says the Lord.

⁴ Come to Bethel [where the golden calf is] and transgress; at Gilgal [another idol worship center] multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every three days.

⁵ And offer [by burning] a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim and publish freewill offerings, for this you like to do, O children of Israel! says the Lord God.

⁶ I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.

⁷ And also I withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece of ground was rained upon, and the piece upon which it did not rain withered.

⁸ So [the people of] two or three cities wandered and staggered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.

⁹ I smote you with blight [from the poisonous east wind] and with mildew; I laid waste the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards; your fig trees and your olive trees the palmerworm [a form of locust] devoured; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.

¹⁰ I have sent among you the pestilence [which I made] epidemic in Egypt; your young men I slew with the sword and I took into exile your horses, and I made the stench of your camp come up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.^(C)

¹¹ I have overthrown some among you as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.^(D)

¹² Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

¹³ For behold, He Who forms the mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what is his thought, Who makes the morning darkness and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name!^(E)

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3 Again Jesus went into a synagogue, and a man was there who had one withered hand [^[a]as the result of accident or disease].

² And [the Pharisees] kept watching Jesus [closely] to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might get a charge to bring against Him [^[b]formally].

³ And He said to the man who had the withered hand, Get up [and stand here] in the midst.

⁴ And He said to them, Is it lawful and right on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to take it? But they kept silence.

⁵ And He glanced around at them with vexation and anger, grieved at the hardening of their hearts, and said to the man, Hold out your hand. He held it out, and his hand was [completely] restored.

⁶ Then the Pharisees went out and immediately held a consultation with the Herodians against Him, how they might [devise some means to] put Him to death.

⁷ And Jesus retired with His disciples to the lake, and a great throng from Galilee followed Him. Also from Judea

⁸ And from Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon—a vast multitude, hearing all the many things that He was doing, came to Him.

⁹ And He told His disciples to have a little boat in [constant] readiness for Him because of the crowd, lest they press hard upon Him and crush Him.

¹⁰ For He had healed so many that all who had distressing bodily diseases kept falling upon Him and pressing upon Him in order that they might touch Him.

¹¹ And the spirits, the unclean ones, ^[c]as often as they might see Him, fell down before Him and kept screaming out, You are the Son of God!

¹² And He charged them strictly and severely under penalty again and again that they should not make Him known.

¹³ And He went up on the hillside and called to Him [^[d]for Himself] those whom He wanted and chose, and they came to Him.

¹⁴ And He appointed twelve to ^[e]continue to be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach [as apostles or special messengers]

¹⁵ And to have authority and power to heal the sick and to drive out demons:

¹⁶ [They were] Simon, and He surnamed [him] Peter;

¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, and He surnamed them Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder;

¹⁸ And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew (Nathaniel), and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus (Judas, not Iscariot), and Simon the Cananaean [also called Zelotes],

¹⁹ And Judas Iscariot, he who betrayed Him.

²⁰ Then He went to a house [probably Peter’s], but a throng came together again, so that Jesus and His disciples could not even take food.

²¹ And when those ^[f]who belonged to Him (^[g]His kinsmen) heard it, they went out to take Him by force, for they kept saying, He is out of ^[h]His mind (beside Himself, deranged)!

²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He is possessed by Beelzebub, and, By [the help of] the prince of demons He is casting out demons.

²³ And He summoned them to Him and said to them in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), How can Satan drive out Satan?

²⁴ And if a kingdom is divided and rebelling against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵ And if a house is divided (split into factions and rebelling) against itself, that house will not be able to last.

²⁶ And if Satan has raised an insurrection against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is [surely] coming to an end.

²⁷ But no one can go into a strong man’s house and ransack his household goods right and left and seize them as plunder unless he first binds the strong man; then indeed he may [thoroughly] plunder his house.^(A)

²⁸ Truly and solemnly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever abusive and blasphemous things they utter;

²⁹ But whoever speaks abusively against or maliciously misrepresents the Holy Spirit can never get forgiveness, but is guilty of and is in the grasp of ^[i]an everlasting trespass.

³⁰ For they ^[j]persisted in saying, ^[k]He has an unclean spirit.

³¹ Then His mother and His brothers came and, standing outside, they sent word to Him, calling [for] Him.

³² And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are outside asking for You.

³³ And He replied, Who are My mother and My brothers?

³⁴ And looking around on those who sat in a circle about Him, He said, See! Here are My mother and My brothers;

³⁵ For whoever does the things God wills is My brother and sister and mother!

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