Five Thousand Fed

^13 (A)Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the ^[a]people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ When He went ^[b]ashore, He ^(B)saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and ^(C)healed their sick.

¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already ^[c]late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” ¹⁷ They *said to Him, “We have here only ^(D)five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” ¹⁹ Ordering the ^[d]people to ^[e]sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He ^(E)blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, ²⁰ and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full ^(F)baskets. ²¹ There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

^32 (A)They went away in ^(B)the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Fed

³³ The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went ^[a]ashore, He ^(C)saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because ^(D)they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵ When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “^[b]This place is desolate and it is already quite late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves ^[c]something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” ^(E)And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred ^[d](F)denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” ³⁸ And He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ And He commanded them all to ^[e]sit down by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They ^[f]sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He ^(G)blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full ^(H)baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were ^(I)five thousand men who ate the loaves.

^10 (A)When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. ^(B)Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called ^(C)Bethsaida. ¹¹ But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.

Five Thousand Fed

¹² Now the day ^[a]was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get ^[b]something to eat; for here we are in a desolate place.” ¹³ But He said to them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (For there were about five thousand men.) And He said to His disciples, “Have them ^[c]sit down to eat ^(D)in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ They did so, and had them all ^[d]sit down. ¹⁶ Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the ^[e]people. ¹⁷ And they all ate and were satisfied; and ^[f]the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve ^(E)baskets full.