The Healing of Naaman

5 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from a skin disease.^{(A) 2} Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” ⁴ So Naaman^[a] went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵ And the king of Aram said, “Go, then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments.^{(B) 6} He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his skin disease.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”^(C)

⁸ But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”^{(D) 9} So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”^{(E) 11} But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! ¹² Are not Abana^[b] and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”^{(F) 14} So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.^(G)

The Mission of the Seventy-Two

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two^[a] others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.^{(A) 2} He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.^{(B) 3} Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.^{(C) 4} Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.^{(D) 5} Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’^{(E) 6} And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. ⁷ Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.^{(F) 8} Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹ cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’^{[b](G) 10} But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’^[c](H)

¹⁶ “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”^(A)

The Return of the Seventy-Two

¹⁷ The seventy-two^[a] returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”^{(B) 18} He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.^{(C) 19} Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.^{(D) 20} Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”^(E)

Jesus Rejoices

²¹ At that very hour Jesus^[b] rejoiced in the Holy Spirit^[c] and said, “I thank^[d] you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.^{[e](F) 22} All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”^(G)

²³ Then turning to the disciples, Jesus^[f] said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!^{(H) 24} For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”^(I)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.^[g] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”^{(J) 26} He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”^{(K) 28} And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”^(L)

²⁹ But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”^{(M) 30} Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead.