Matthew 12:1-7

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

12 At that ^[a]particular time Jesus went through the fields of standing grain on the Sabbath; and His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick off the spikes of grain and to eat.^(A)

² And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, See there! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful and not permitted on the Sabbath.

³ He said to them, Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, and those who accompanied him—^(B)

⁴ How he went into the house of God and ate the loaves of the showbread—which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for the men who accompanied him, but for the priests only?

⁵ Or have you never read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the sanctity of the Sabbath [breaking it] and yet are guiltless?^(C)

⁶ But I tell you, Something greater and ^[b]more exalted and more majestic than the temple is here!

⁷ And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless.^(D)