Luke 4:16-30

Living Bible

¹⁶ When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on Saturday, and stood up to read the Scriptures. ¹⁷ The book of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he opened it to the place where it says:

^18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to announce that captives shall be released and the blind shall see, that the downtrodden shall be freed from their oppressors, and that God is ready to give blessings to all who come to him.”^[a]

²⁰ He closed the book and handed it back to the attendant and sat down, while everyone in the synagogue gazed at him intently. ²¹ Then he added, “These Scriptures came true today!”

²² All who were there spoke well of him and were amazed by the beautiful words that fell from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³ Then he said, “Probably you will quote me that proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Why don’t you do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum?’ ²⁴ But I solemnly declare to you that no prophet is accepted in his own hometown! ^25-26 For example, remember how Elijah the prophet used a miracle to help the widow of Zarephath—a foreigner from the land of Sidon. There were many Jewish widows needing help in those days of famine, for there had been no rain for three and a half years, and hunger stalked the land; yet Elijah was not sent to them. ²⁷ Or think of the prophet Elisha, who healed Naaman, a Syrian, rather than the many Jewish lepers needing help.”

²⁸ These remarks stung them to fury; ²⁹ and jumping up, they mobbed him and took him to the edge of the hill on which the city was built, to push him over the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked away through the crowd and left them.