John 6:1-13

Living Bible

6 After this, Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. ^2-5 And a huge crowd, many of them pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration, were following him wherever he went, to watch him heal the sick. So when Jesus went up into the hills and sat down with his disciples around him, he soon saw a great multitude of people climbing the hill, looking for him.

Turning to Philip he asked, “Philip, where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” ⁶ (He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.)

⁷ Philip replied, “It would take a fortune^[a] to begin to do it!”

^8-9 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a youngster here with five barley loaves and a couple of fish! But what good is that with all this mob?”

¹⁰ “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus ordered. And all of them—the approximate count of the men only was five thousand—sat down on the grassy slopes. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks to God and passed them out to the people. Afterwards he did the same with the fish. And everyone ate until full!

¹² “Now gather the scraps,” Jesus told his disciples, “so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³ And twelve baskets were filled with the leftovers!