¹⁴ When they got back to the talmidim, they saw a large crowd around them and some Torah-teachers arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as the crowd saw him, they were surprised and ran out to greet him. ¹⁶ He asked them, “What’s the discussion about?” ¹⁷ One of the crowd gave him the answer: “Rabbi, I brought my son to you because he has an evil spirit in him that makes him unable to talk. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground — he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes stiff all over. I asked your talmidim to drive the spirit out, but they couldn’t do it.” ¹⁹ “People without any trust!” he responded. “How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me!” ²⁰ They brought the boy to him; and as soon as the spirit saw him, it threw the boy into a convulsion. ²¹ Yeshua asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening to him?” “Ever since childhood,” he said; ²² “and it often tries to kill him by throwing him into the fire or into the water. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us!” ²³ Yeshua said to him, “What do you mean, ‘if you can’? Everything is possible to someone who has trust!” ²⁴ Instantly the father of the child exclaimed, “I do trust — help my lack of trust!” ²⁵ When Yeshua saw that the crowd was closing in on them, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and dumb spirit! I command you: come out of him, and never go back into him again!” ²⁶ Shrieking and throwing the boy into a violent fit, it came out. The boy lay there like a corpse, so that most of the people said he was dead. ²⁷ But Yeshua took him by the hand and raised him to his feet, and he stood up.

²⁸ After Yeshua had gone indoors, his talmidim asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” ²⁹ He said to them “This is the kind of spirit that can be driven out only by prayer.”

³⁰ After leaving that place, they went on through the Galil. Yeshua didn’t want anyone to know, ³¹ because he was teaching his talmidim. He told them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men who will put him to death; but after he has been killed, three days later he will rise.” ³² But they didn’t understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him.

³³ They arrived at K’far-Nachum. When Yeshua was inside the house, he asked them, “What were you discussing as we were traveling?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet; because on the way, they had been arguing with each other about who was the greatest. ³⁵ He sat down, summoned the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ He took a child and stood him among them. Then he put his arms around him and said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the One who sent me.”

³⁸ Yochanan said to him, “Rabbi, we saw a man expelling demons in your name; and because he wasn’t one of us, we told him to stop.” ³⁹ But Yeshua said, “Don’t stop him, because no one who works a miracle in my name will soon after be able to say something bad about me. ⁴⁰ For whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ Indeed, whoever gives you even a cup of water to drink because you come in the name of the Messiah — yes! I tell you that he will certainly not lose his reward.

⁴² “Whoever ensnares one of these little ones who trust me — it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be thrown in the sea. ⁴³ If your hand makes you sin, cut it off! Better that you should be maimed but obtain eternal life, rather than keep both hands and go to Gei-Hinnom, to unquenchable fire! ^{44 [a] 45} And if your foot makes you sin, cut it off! Better that you should be lame but obtain eternal life, rather than keep both feet and be thrown into Gei-Hinnom! ^{46 [b] 47} And if your eye makes you sin, pluck it out! Better that you should be one-eyed but enter the Kingdom of God, rather than keep both eyes and be thrown into Gei-Hinnom,

⁴⁹ Indeed, everyone is going to be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is excellent, but if it loses its saltiness, how will you season it? So have salt in yourselves — that is, be at peace with each other.”

⁵¹ As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, he made his decision to set out for Yerushalayim. ⁵² He sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village in Shomron to make preparations for him. ⁵³ However, the people there would not let him stay, because his destination was Yerushalayim. ⁵⁴ When the talmidim Ya‘akov and Yochanan saw this, they said, “Sir, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?”^{[a] 55} But he turned and rebuked them.^{[b] 56} And they went on to another village.

⁵⁷ As they were traveling on the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸ Yeshua answered him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.” ⁵⁹ To another he said, “Follow me!” but the man replied, “Sir, first let me go away and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ Yeshua said, “Let the dead bury their own dead; you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!” ⁶¹ Yet another said, “I will follow you, sir, but first let me say good-by to the people at home.” ⁶² To him Yeshua said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit to serve in the Kingdom of God.”

10 After this, the Lord appointed seventy other talmidim and sent them on ahead in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go. ² He said to them, “To be sure, there is a large harvest. But there are few workers. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the Harvest that he speed workers out to gather in his harvest. ³ Get going now, but pay attention! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴ Don’t carry a money-belt or a pack, and don’t stop to shmoose with people on the road.

⁵ “Whenever you enter a house, first say, ‘Shalom!’ to the household. ⁶ If a seeker of shalom is there, your ‘Shalom!’ will find its rest with him; and if there isn’t, it will return to you. ⁷ Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they offer, for a worker deserves his wages — don’t move about from house to house.

⁸ “Whenever you come into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put in front of you. ⁹ Heal the sick there, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you.’ ¹⁰ But whenever you enter a town and they don’t make you welcome, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off as a sign against you! But understand this: the Kingdom of God is near!’ ¹² I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for S’dom than for that town.

¹³ “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Beit-Tzaidah! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tzor and Tzidon, they would long ago have put on sackcloth and ashes as evidence that they had changed their ways. ¹⁴ But at the Judgment it will be more bearable for Tzor and Tzidon than for you!

¹⁵ “And you, K’far-Nachum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Sh’ol!^[c]

¹⁶ “Whoever listens to you listens to me, also whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the One who sent me.”

¹⁷ The seventy came back jubilant. “Lord,” they said, “with your power, even the demons submit to us!” ¹⁸ Yeshua said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Remember, I have given you authority; so you can trample down snakes and scorpions, indeed, all the Enemy’s forces; and you will remain completely unharmed. ²⁰ Nevertheless, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven.”

²¹ At that moment he was filled with joy by the Ruach HaKodesh and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you because you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated, yet revealed them to ordinary people. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.

²² “My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” ²³ Then, turning to the talmidim, he said, privately, “How blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing! ²⁴ Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.”

²⁵ An expert in Torah stood up to try and trap him by asking, “Rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?” ²⁶ But Yeshua said to him, “What is written in the Torah? How do you read it?” ²⁷ He answered, “You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your understanding; and your neighbor as yourself.”^{[d] 28} “That’s the right answer,” Yeshua said. “Do this, and you will have life.”

²⁹ But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Yeshua, “And who is my ‘neighbor’?” ³⁰ Taking up the question, Yeshua said: “A man was going down from Yerushalayim to Yericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him naked and beat him up, then went off, leaving him half dead. ³¹ By coincidence, a cohen was going down on that road; but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levi who reached the place and saw him also passed by on the other side.

³³ “But a man from Shomron who was traveling came upon him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. ³⁴ So he went up to him, put oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them. Then he set him on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day, he took out two days’ wages, gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Look after him; and if you spend more than this, I’ll pay you back when I return.’ ³⁶ Of these three, which one seems to you to have become the ‘neighbor’ of the man who fell among robbers?” ³⁷ He answered, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Yeshua said to him, “You go and do as he did.”

³⁸ On their way Yeshua and his talmidim came to a village where a woman named Marta welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister called Miryam who also sat at the Lord’s feet and heard what he had to say. ⁴⁰ But Marta was busy with all the work to be done; so, going up to him, she said, “Sir, don’t you care that my sister has been leaving me to do all the work by myself?” ⁴¹ However, the Lord answered her, “Marta, Marta, you are fretting and worrying about so many things! ⁴² But there is only one thing that is essential. Miryam has chosen the right thing, and it won’t be taken away from her.”