Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

12 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck off heads of grain and eat them.^{[a] 2} But when^[b] the Pharisees saw it,^[c] they said to him, “Behold, your disciples are doing what it is not permitted to do on the Sabbath!” ³ So he said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those with him, ⁴ how he entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the presentation, which it was not permitted for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the sanctity of the Sabbath and are guiltless? ⁶ But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! ⁷ And if you had known what it means,^[d] ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”