Mark 5:21-43

New Testament for Everyone

Jairus’s daughter and the woman with chronic bleeding

²¹ Jesus crossed over once more in the boat to the other side. There a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the seashore.

²² One of the synagogue presidents, a man named Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus he fell down at his feet.

²³ “My daughter’s going to die! My daughter’s going to die!” he pleaded. “Please come—lay your hands on her—rescue her and let her live!”

²⁴ Jesus went off with him. A large crowd followed, and pressed in on him.

²⁵ A woman who had had internal bleeding for twelve years heard about Jesus. ²⁶ (She’d had a rough time at the hands of one doctor after another; she’d spent all she had on treatment, and had got worse rather than better.) ²⁷ She came up in the crowd behind him and touched his clothes. ²⁸ “If I can just touch his clothes,” she said to herself, “I’ll be rescued.” ²⁹ At once her flow of blood dried up. She knew, in her body, that her illness was cured.

³⁰ Jesus knew at once, inside himself, that power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see this crowd crushing you,” said the disciples, “and you say ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² He looked round to see who had done it. ³³ The woman came up; she was afraid and trembling, but she knew what had happened to her. She fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth.

³⁴ “My daughter,” Jesus said to her, “your faith has rescued you. Go in peace. Be healed from your illness.”

The raising of Jairus’s daughter

³⁵ As he said this, some people arrived from the synagogue president’s house.

“Your daughter’s dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Jesus overheard the message. “Don’t be afraid!” he said to the synagogue president. “Just believe!”

³⁷ He didn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James and James’s brother John. ³⁸ They arrived at the synagogue president’s house, and saw a commotion, with a lot of weeping and wailing. ³⁹ Jesus went inside.

“Why are you making such a fuss?” he said. “Why all this weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s asleep.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him.

He put them all out. Then he took the child’s father and mother, and his companions, and they went in to where the child was. ⁴¹ He took hold of her hand, and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Time to get up, little girl!” ⁴² At once the girl got up and walked about. (She was twelve years old.) They were astonished out of their wits. ⁴³ Then he commanded them over and over not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.