5 One day, as Yeshua was standing on the shore of Lake Kinneret, with the people pressing in around him in order to hear the word of God, ² he noticed two boats pulled up on the beach, left there by the fishermen, who were cleaning their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Shim‘on, and asked him to put out a little way from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Shim‘on, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Shim‘on answered, “We’ve worked hard all night long, Rabbi, and haven’t caught a thing! But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” ⁶ They did this and took in so many fish that their nets began to tear. ⁷ So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; and they came and filled both boats to the point of sinking. ⁸ When he saw this, Shim‘on Kefa fell at Yeshua’s knees and said, “Get away from me, sir, because I’m a sinner!” ⁹ For astonishment had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and likewise both Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Shim‘on’s partners. “Don’t be frightened,” Yeshua said to Shim‘on, “from now on you will be catching men — alive!” ¹¹ And as soon as they had beached their boats, they left everything behind and followed him.

¹² Once, when Yeshua was in one of the towns, there came a man completely covered with tzara‘at. On seeing Yeshua, he fell on his face and begged him, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ¹³ Yeshua reached out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” Immediately the tzara‘at left him. ¹⁴ Then Yeshua warned him not to tell anyone. “Instead, as a testimony to the people, go straight to the cohen and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moshe commanded.” ¹⁵ But the news about Yeshua kept spreading all the more, so that huge crowds would gather to listen and be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ However, he made a practice of withdrawing to remote places in order to pray.

¹⁷ One day when Yeshua was teaching, there were P’rushim and Torah-teachers present who had come from various villages in the Galil and Y’hudah, also from Yerushalayim; and the power of Adonai was with him to heal the sick. ¹⁸ Some men came carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. They wanted to bring him inside and lay him in front of Yeshua, ¹⁹ but they couldn’t find a way to get him in because of the crowd. So they went up onto the roof and lowered him on his mattress through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, right in front of Yeshua. ²⁰ When Yeshua saw their trust, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” ²¹ The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim began thinking, “Who is this fellow that speaks such blasphemies? Who can forgive sin except God?” ²² But Yeshua, knowing what they were thinking, answered, “Why are you turning over such thoughts in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier to say? ‘Your sins are forgiven you’? or ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then said to the paralytic, “I say to you: get up, pick up your mattress and go home!” ²⁵ Immediately, in front of everyone, he stood up, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. ²⁶ Amazement seized them all, and they made a b’rakhah to God; they were awestruck, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

²⁷ Later Yeshua went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting in his tax-collection booth; and he said to him, “Follow me!” ²⁸ He got up, left everything and followed him.

²⁹ Levi gave a banquet at his house in Yeshua’s honor, and there was a large group of tax-collectors and others at the table with them. ³⁰ The P’rushim and their Torah-teachers protested indignantly against his talmidim, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?” ³¹ It was Yeshua who answered them: “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the ‘righteous,’ but rather to call sinners to turn to God from their sins.”

³³ Next they said to him, “Yochanan’s talmidim are always fasting and davvening, and likewise the talmidim of the P’rushim; but yours go on eating and drinking.” ³⁴ Yeshua said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them? ³⁵ The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; and when that time comes, they will fast.” ³⁶ Then he gave them an illustration: “No one tears a piece from a new coat and puts it on an old one; if he does, not only will the new one continue to rip, but the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ Also, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins too will be ruined. ³⁸ On the contrary, new wine must be put into freshly prepared wineskins. ³⁹ Besides that, after drinking old wine, people don’t want new; because they say, ‘The old is good enough.’”