The First Disciples

5 ^(A)Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing at the edge of ^(B)the lake of Gennesaret; ² and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, and the fishermen, having gotten out of them, were washing their nets. ^3 (C)And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. ⁴ And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and ^(D)let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered and said, “^(E)Master, ^(F)we labored all night and caught nothing, but at Your word, I will let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, ^(G)they enclosed a great quantity of fish. And their nets began to break; ⁷ so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken, ¹⁰ and ^[a]James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, were also likewise amazed. And Jesus said to Simon, “^(H)Do not fear, from now on you will be ^(I)catching men.” ¹¹ And when they had brought their boats to land, ^(J)they left everything and followed Him.