More Than 5,000 People Fed

³⁰ The apostles that Jesus had sent out to preach returned. They gathered around him and told him about all the things they had done and taught. ³¹ Crowds of people were coming and going. Jesus and his followers did not even have time to eat. He said to them, “Come with me. We will go to a quiet place to be alone. There we will get some rest.”

³² So they went in a boat alone to a place where there were no people. ³³ But many people saw them leave and recognized them. So people from all the towns ran to the place where Jesus was going. They got there before Jesus arrived. ³⁴ When he landed, he saw a great crowd waiting. Jesus felt sorry for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he taught them many things.

³⁵ It was now late in the day. Jesus’ followers came to him and said, “No one lives in this place. And it is already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away. They need to go to the farms and towns around here to buy some food to eat.”

³⁷ But Jesus answered, “You give them food to eat.”

They said to him, “We can’t buy enough bread to feed all these people! We would all have to work a month to earn enough money to buy that much bread!”

³⁸ Jesus asked them, “How many loaves of bread do you have now? Go and see.”

When they found out, they came to him and said, “We have five loaves and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus said to the followers, “Tell all the people to sit in groups on the green grass.” ⁴⁰ So all the people sat in groups. They sat in groups of 50 or groups of 100. ⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves and two fish. He looked up to heaven and thanked God for the bread. He divided the bread and gave it to his followers for them to give to the people. Then he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² All the people ate and were satisfied. ⁴³ The followers filled 12 baskets with the pieces of bread and fish that were not eaten. ⁴⁴ There were about 5,000 men there who ate.

⁵¹ Then he got into the boat with them. And the wind became calm. The followers were greatly amazed. ⁵² They had seen Jesus make more bread from the five loaves. But they did not understand what it meant. Their minds were closed.

⁵³ When they had crossed the lake, they came to shore at Gennesaret. They tied the boat there. ⁵⁴ When they got out of the boat, the people saw Jesus and immediately recognized him. ⁵⁵ They ran to tell others everywhere in that area that Jesus was there. They brought sick people on mats to every place Jesus went.