More than Five Thousand Fed^(A)

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then Jesus took them with him to a town called Bethsaida where they could be alone together. ¹¹ But the ·people [crowds] learned where Jesus went and followed him. He welcomed them and talked with them about God’s kingdom and healed those who needed to be healed.

¹² Late in the afternoon, ·the twelve apostles [^Lthe Twelve] came to Jesus and said, “Send the ·people [crowd] away. They need to go to the ·towns [villages] and countryside around here and find places to sleep and something to eat, because ·no one lives in this [^Lwe are in a remote/deserted] place.”

¹³ But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

They said, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish, unless we go buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (There were about five thousand men there.)

Jesus said to his ·followers [disciples], “Tell the people to sit in groups of about fifty people.”

¹⁵ So ·the followers [^Lthey] did this, and all the people sat down. ¹⁶ Then Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two fish, and looking up to heaven, he ·thanked God for [^Lblessed] the food. Then he ·divided the food [broke it into pieces] and gave it to the ·followers [disciples] to ·give to [distribute to; ^Lset before] the people. ¹⁷ They all ate and were ·satisfied [filled], and what was left over was gathered up, filling twelve baskets.

More than Five Thousand Fed^(A)

¹³ When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a ·lonely [isolated; deserted] place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he ·arrived [landed; came ashore], he saw a great crowd waiting. He ·felt sorry [had compassion] for them and healed those who were sick.

¹⁵ When it was evening, his ·followers [disciples] came to him and said, “·No one lives in this [This is a remote/deserted] place, and it is already late. Send the people away so they can go to the ·towns [villages] and buy food for themselves.”

¹⁶ But Jesus answered, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ They said to him, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.”

¹⁸ Jesus said, “Bring ·the bread and the fish [^Lthem here] to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ·told [commanded; ordered] the people to ·sit down [recline] on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking to heaven, he ·thanked God for [blessed] the food. Jesus ·divided [broke] the bread and gave it to his ·followers [disciples], who gave it to the people. ²⁰ All the people ate and were satisfied. Then ·the followers [^Lthey] filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of food. ²¹ There were about five thousand men there who ate, not counting women and children.

More than Five Thousand Fed^(A)

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him about all the things they had done and taught. ³¹ Crowds of people were coming and going so that Jesus and his ·followers [disciples] did not even have time to eat. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves, and we will go to a ·lonely [isolated; deserted] place to get some rest.”

³² So they went in a boat by themselves to a ·lonely [isolated; deserted] place. ³³ But many people saw them leave and recognized them. So from all the towns they ran to the place where Jesus was going, and they got there before him. ³⁴ When he ·arrived [landed; came ashore], he saw a great crowd waiting. He ·felt sorry [had compassion] for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it was late in the day, his ·followers [disciples] came to him and said, “·No one lives in this place [This is a remote/deserted place], and it is already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so they can go to the countryside and towns around here to buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ But Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, ·“We would all have to work a month to earn enough money to buy that much bread!” [^L“Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”]

³⁸ Jesus asked them, “How many loaves of bread do you have? Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five loaves and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus ·told [commanded; ordered] ·his followers [^Lthem] to have the people sit [recline; ^Cthe posture for a banquet or dinner party; 2:15] in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves and two fish and, looking up to heaven, he ·thanked God for [blessed] the food. He ·divided [broke] the bread and gave it to his ·followers [disciples] for them to give to the people. Then he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² All the people ate and were satisfied. ⁴³ ·The followers [^LThey] filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ There were five thousand men who ate.