5 Now it occurred that while the people pressed upon Jesus to hear the message of God, He was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee).

² And He saw two boats drawn up by the lake, but the fishermen had gone down from them and were washing their nets.

³ And getting into one of the boats, [the one] that belonged to Simon (Peter), He requested him to draw away a little from the shore. Then He sat down and continued to teach the crowd [of people] from the boat.

⁴ When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon (Peter), Put out into the deep [water], and lower your nets for a haul.

⁵ And Simon (Peter) answered, Master, we toiled all night [^[a]exhaustingly] and caught nothing [in our nets]. But ^[b]on the ground of Your word, I will lower the nets [again].

⁶ And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish; and as their nets were [^[c]at the point of] breaking,

⁷ They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and take hold with them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

⁸ But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

⁹ For he was gripped with bewildering amazement [allied to terror], and all who were with him, at the haul of fish which they had made;

¹⁰ And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon (Peter). And Jesus said to Simon, Have no fear; from now on you will be catching men!

¹¹ And after they had run their boats on shore, they left everything and ^[d] joined Him as His disciples and sided with His party and accompanied Him.

¹² While He was in one of the towns, there came a man full of (covered with) leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You are able to cure me and make me clean.

¹³ And [Jesus] reached out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed! And immediately the leprosy left him.

¹⁴ And [Jesus] charged him to tell no one [^[e]that he might chance to meet], ^[f]until [He said] you go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your purification, as Moses commanded, for a testimony and proof to the people, that they may have evidence [of your healing].^(A)

¹⁵ But so much the more the news spread abroad concerning Him, and great crowds kept coming together to hear [Him] and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.

¹⁶ But He Himself withdrew [in retirement] to the wilderness (desert) and prayed.

¹⁷ One of those days, as He was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting by, who had come from every village and town of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was [present] with Him to heal ^[g]them.

¹⁸ And behold, some men were bringing on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to carry him in and lay him before [Jesus].

¹⁹ But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him with his stretcher through the tiles into the midst, in front of Jesus.

²⁰ And when He saw [their confidence in Him, springing from] their faith, He said, Man, your sins are forgiven you!

²¹ And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason and question and argue, saying, Who is this [Man] Who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

²² But Jesus, knowing their thoughts and questionings, answered them, Why do you question in your hearts?

²³ Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise and walk [about]?

²⁴ But that you may know that the Son of Man has the [^[h]power of] authority and right on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, arise, pick up your litter (stretcher), and go to your own house!

²⁵ And instantly [the man] stood up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went away to his house, ^[i]recognizing and praising and thanking God.

²⁶ And overwhelming astonishment and ecstasy seized them all, and they ^[j]recognized and praised and thanked God; and they were filled with and controlled by reverential fear and kept saying, We have seen wonderful and strange and incredible and unthinkable things today!

²⁷ And after this, Jesus went out and looked [attentively] at a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office; and He said to him, ^[k]Join Me as a disciple and side with My party and accompany Me.

²⁸ And he forsook everything and got up and followed Him [becoming His disciple and siding with His party].

²⁹ And Levi (Matthew) made a great banquet for Him in his own house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others who were reclining [at the table] with them.

³⁰ Now the Pharisees and their scribes were grumbling against Jesus’ disciples, saying, Why are you eating and drinking with tax collectors and [preeminently] sinful people?

³¹ And Jesus replied to them, It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

³² I have not come to arouse and invite and call the righteous, but ^[l]the erring ones (^[m]those not free from sin) to repentance [^[n]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins].

³³ Then they said to Him, The disciples of John practice fasting often and offer up prayers of [special] petition, and so do [the disciples] of the Pharisees also, but Yours eat and drink.

³⁴ And Jesus said to them, Can you make the wedding guests fast as long as the bridegroom is with them?

³⁵ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; and then they will fast in those days.

³⁶ He told them a ^[o]proverb also: No one puts a patch from a new garment on an old garment; if he does, he will both tear the new one, and the patch from the new [one] will not match the old [garment].

³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the fresh wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be ruined (destroyed).

³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine immediately desires new wine, for he says, The old is good or ^[p]better.

6 One Sabbath while Jesus was passing through the fields of standing grain, it occurred that His disciples picked some of the spikes and ate [of the grain], rubbing it out in their hands.^(B)

² But some of the Pharisees asked them, Why are you doing what is not permitted to be done on the Sabbath days?^(C)

³ And Jesus replied to them, saying, Have you never so much as read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him?—^(D)

⁴ How he went into the house of God and took and ate the [sacred] loaves of the showbread, which it is not permitted for any except only the priests to eat, and also gave to those [who were] with him?^(E)

⁵ And He said to them, The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

⁶ And it occurred on another Sabbath that when He went into the synagogue and taught, a man was present whose right hand was withered.

⁷ And the scribes and the Pharisees kept watching Jesus to see whether He would [actually] heal on the Sabbath, in order that they might get [some ground for] accusation against Him.

⁸ But He was aware all along of their thoughts, and He said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here in the midst. And he arose and stood there.

⁹ Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful and right on the Sabbath to do good [^[q]so that someone derives advantage from it] or to do evil, to save a life [and ^[r]make a soul safe] or to destroy it?

¹⁰ Then He glanced around at them all and said to the man, Stretch out your hand! And he did so, and his hand was fully restored ^[s]like the other one.

¹¹ But they were filled with lack of understanding and senseless rage and discussed (consulted) with one another what they might do to Jesus.

¹² Now in those days it occurred that He went up into a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God.

¹³ And when it was day, He summoned His disciples and selected from them twelve, whom He named apostles (special messengers):

¹⁴ They were Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew;

¹⁵ And Matthew and Thomas; and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,

¹⁶ And Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor (a treacherous, basely faithless person).

¹⁷ And Jesus came down with them and took His stand on a level spot, with a great crowd of His disciples and a vast throng of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to listen to Him and to be cured of their diseases—

¹⁸ Even those who were disturbed and troubled with unclean spirits, and they were being healed [also].

¹⁹ And all the multitude were seeking to touch Him, for healing power was all the while going forth from Him and curing them all [^[t]saving them from severe illnesses or calamities].

²⁰ And solemnly lifting up His eyes on His disciples, He said: Blessed (happy—^[u]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[v]to be envied) are you poor and ^[w]lowly and afflicted (destitute of wealth, influence, position, and honor), for the kingdom of God is yours!

²¹ Blessed (happy—^[x]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[y]to be envied) are you who hunger and seek with eager desire now, for you shall be filled and completely satisfied! Blessed (happy—^[z]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[aa]to be envied) are you who weep and sob now, for you shall laugh!

²² Blessed (happy—^[ab]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[ac]to be envied) are you when people despise (hate) you, and when they exclude and excommunicate you [as disreputable] and revile and denounce you and defame and cast out and spurn your name as evil (wicked) on account of the Son of Man.

²³ Rejoice and be glad at such a time and exult and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is rich and great and strong and intense and abundant in heaven; for even so their forefathers treated the prophets.

²⁴ But woe to (alas for) you who are rich (^[ad]abounding in material resources), for you already are receiving your consolation (the solace and sense of strengthening and cheer that come from prosperity) and have taken and enjoyed your comfort in full [having nothing left to be awarded you].

²⁵ Woe to (alas for) you who are full now (completely filled, luxuriously gorged and satiated), for you shall hunger and suffer want! Woe to (alas for) you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep and wail!

²⁶ Woe to (alas for) you when everyone speaks fairly and handsomely of you and praises you, for even so their forefathers did to the false prophets.

²⁷ But I say to you who are listening now to Me: [^[ae]in order to heed, make it a practice to] love your enemies, treat well (do good to, act nobly toward) those who detest you and pursue you with hatred,

²⁸ Invoke blessings upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you, implore God’s blessing (favor) upon those who abuse you [who revile, reproach, disparage, and high-handedly misuse you].

²⁹ To the one who strikes you on the ^[af]jaw or cheek, offer the other ^[ag]jaw or cheek also; and from him who takes away your outer garment, do not withhold your undergarment as well.

³⁰ Give away to everyone who begs of you [who is ^[ah]in want of necessities], and of him who takes away from you your goods, do not demand or require them back again.

³¹ And as you would like and desire that men would do to you, do exactly so to them.

³² If you [merely] love those who love you, what ^[ai]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even ^[aj]the [very] sinners love their lovers (those who love them).

³³ And if you are kind and good and do favors to and benefit those who are kind and good and do favors to and benefit you, what ^[ak]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even ^[al]the preeminently sinful do the same.

³⁴ And if you lend money ^[am]at interest to those from whom you hope to receive, what ^[an]quality of credit and thanks is that to you? Even notorious sinners lend money ^[ao]at interest to sinners, so as to recover as much again.

³⁵ But love your enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors ^[ap]so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return but ^[aq]considering nothing as lost and despairing of no one; and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind and charitable and good to the ungrateful and the selfish and wicked.

³⁶ So be merciful (sympathetic, tender, responsive, and compassionate) even as your Father is [all these].

³⁷ Judge not [neither pronouncing judgment nor subjecting to censure], and you will not be judged; do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty; acquit and forgive and ^[ar]release (give up resentment, let it drop), and you will be acquitted and forgiven and ^[as]released.

³⁸ Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour ^[at]into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.

³⁹ He further told them ^[au]a proverb: Can a blind [man] guide and direct a blind [man]? Will they not both stumble into a ditch or a ^[av]hole in the ground?

⁴⁰ A pupil is not superior to his teacher, but everyone [when he is] completely trained (readjusted, restored, set to rights, and perfected) will be like his teacher.

⁴¹ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but do not notice or consider the beam [of timber] that is in your own eye?

⁴² Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, allow me to take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the beam that is in your own eye? You actor (pretender, hypocrite)! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

⁴³ For there is no good (healthy) tree that bears decayed (worthless, stale) fruit, nor on the other hand does a decayed (worthless, sickly) tree bear good fruit.

⁴⁴ For each tree is known and identified by its own fruit; for figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor is a cluster of grapes picked from a bramblebush.

⁴⁵ The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.

⁴⁶ Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?

⁴⁷ For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like:

⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or ^[aw]founded on a rock.

⁴⁹ But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.