Matthew 12:1-8

Evangelical Heritage Version

Lord of the Sabbath

12 At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick heads of grain and eat them. ² But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, what your disciples are doing is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

³ But he said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered God’s house and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was lawful only for the priests to eat, not for him or his companions. ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath days, the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? ⁶ But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. ⁷ Yet if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’^[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”