Luke 9:1-17

New Testament for Everyone

The Twelve sent out and the feeding of the five thousand

9 Jesus called together the Twelve, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. ² He sent them out to announce God’s kingdom and cure the sick.

³ “Don’t take anything for the journey,” he said to them, “no stick, no bag, no bread, no money, no second cloak. ⁴ Whenever you go into a house, stay there and leave from there. ⁵ If anyone won’t receive you, go out of that town and wipe the dust off your feet as evidence against them.”

⁶ So off they went, and traveled through the villages, announcing the good news and healing people everywhere.

⁷ Herod the Tetrarch heard what was going on, and was very puzzled. Some people were saying that John had been raised from the dead. ⁸ Others were saying that Elijah had appeared; still others, that one of the old prophets had arisen.

⁹ “I beheaded John,” said Herod, “but I keep hearing all these things about this other fellow. Who is he?” And he tried to get to see him.

¹⁰ The apostles returned and told Jesus what they had done. He took them off and went away privately to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹ When the crowds discovered, they followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed it.

¹² As the day wore on, the Twelve came to Jesus.

“Send the crowd away,” they said, “so that they can go into the villages and countryside nearby, find somewhere to stay, and get something to eat. We’re in quite a lonely spot here.”

¹³ “You give them something to eat,” he replied.

“All we’ve got here,” they said, “is five loaves and a couple of fishes—unless you mean we should go ourselves and buy food for all these people?” ¹⁴ (There were about five thousand men.)

“Get them to sit down,” Jesus said to them, “in groups of around fifty each.”

¹⁵ They did so, and everyone sat down. ¹⁶ Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven, blessed the food, divided it, and gave it to the disciples to pass around the crowd. ¹⁷ Everyone ate, and was satisfied. They took up twelve baskets of broken bits left over.