Beginning

4 Again Yeshua began to teach by the lake, but the crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the crowd remained on shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things in parables. In the course of his teaching, he said to them: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he sowed, some seed fell alongside the path; and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky patches where there was not much soil. It sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow; ⁶ but when the sun rose, the young plants were scorched; and since their roots were not deep, they dried up. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked it; so that it yielded no grain. ⁸ But other seed fell into rich soil and produced grain; it sprouted, and grew, and yielded a crop — thirty, sixty, even a hundred times what was sown.” ⁹ And he concluded, “Whoever has ears to hear with, let him hear!”

¹⁰ When Yeshua was alone, the people around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He answered them, “To you the secret of the Kingdom of God has been given; but to those outside, everything is in parables, ¹² so that

¹³ Then Yeshua said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you be able to understand any parable? ¹⁴ The sower sows the message. ¹⁵ Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them. ¹⁶ Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; ¹⁷ but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immediately fall away. ¹⁸ Others are those sown among thorns — they hear the message; ¹⁹ but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing. ²⁰ But those sown on rich soil hear the message, accept it and bear fruit — thirty, sixty or a hundredfold.”

²¹ He said to them, “A lamp isn’t brought in to be put under a bowl or under the bed, is it? Wouldn’t you put it on a lampstand? ²² Indeed, nothing is hidden, except to be disclosed; and nothing is covered up, except to come out into the open. ²³ Those who have ears to hear with, let them hear!”

²⁴ He also said to them, “Pay attention to what you are hearing! The measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you — and more besides! ²⁵ For anyone who has something will be given more; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away.”

²⁶ And he said, “The Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Nights he sleeps, days he’s awake; and meanwhile the seeds sprout and grow — how, he doesn’t know. ²⁸ By itself the soil produces a crop — first the stalk, then the head, and finally the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But as soon as the crop is ready, the man comes with his sickle, because it’s harvest-time.”

³⁰ Yeshua also said, “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God? What illustration should we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when planted, is the smallest of all the seeds in the field; ³² but after it has been planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the plants, with such big branches that the birds flying about can build nests in its shade.”

³³ With many parables like these he spoke the message to them, to the extent that they were capable of hearing it. ³⁴ He did not say a thing to them without using a parable; when he was alone with his own talmidim he explained everything to them.

³⁵ That day, when evening had come, Yeshua said to them, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ So, leaving the crowd behind, they took him just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious windstorm arose, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was close to being swamped. ³⁸ But he was in the stern on a cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, “Rabbi, doesn’t it matter to you that we’re about to be killed?” ³⁹ He awoke, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind subsided, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no trust even now?” ⁴¹ But they were terrified and asked each other, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey him?”

5 Yeshua and his talmidim arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gerasenes’ territory. ² As soon as he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the burial caves to meet him. ³ He lived in the burial caves; and no one could keep him tied up, not even with a chain. ⁴ He had often been chained hand and foot, but he would snap the chains and break the irons off his feet, and no one was strong enough to control him. ⁵ Night and day he wandered among the graves and through the hills, howling and gashing himself with stones.

⁶ Seeing Yeshua from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him ⁷ and screamed at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Yeshua, Son of God Ha‘Elyon? I implore you in God’s name! Don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Yeshua had already begun saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of this man!” ⁹ Yeshua asked him, “What’s your name?” “My name is Legion,” he answered, “there are so many of us”; ¹⁰ and he kept begging Yeshua not to send them out of that region.

¹¹ Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding near the hill, ¹² and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so we can go into them.” ¹³ Yeshua gave them permission. They came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering around two thousand, rushed down the hillside into the lake and were drowned. ¹⁴ The swineherds fled and told it in the town and in the surrounding country, and the people went to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had had the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were frightened. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told what had happened to the man controlled by demons and to the pigs; ¹⁷ and the people began begging Yeshua to leave their district.

¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized begged him to be allowed to go with him. ¹⁹ But Yeshua would not permit it. Instead, he said to him, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much Adonai in his mercy has done for you.” ²⁰ He went off and began proclaiming in the Ten Towns how much Yeshua had done for him, and everyone was amazed.

²¹ Yeshua crossed in the boat to the other side of the lake, and a great crowd gathered around him. ²² There came to him a synagogue official, Ya’ir by name, who fell at his feet ²³ and pleaded desperately with him, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please! Come and lay your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!”

²⁴ He went with him; and a large crowd followed, pressing all around him. ²⁵ Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years ²⁶ and had suffered a great deal under many physicians. She had spent her life savings; yet instead of improving, she had grown worse. ²⁷ She had heard about Yeshua, so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe; ²⁸ for she said, “If I touch even his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Instantly the hemorrhaging stopped, and she felt in her body that she had been healed from the disease. ³⁰ At the same time, Yeshua, aware that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ His talmidim responded, “You see the people pressing in on you; and still you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² But he kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ The woman, frightened and trembling, because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ “Daughter,” he said to her, “your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house came, saying, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the rabbi any longer?” ³⁶ Ignoring what they had said, Yeshua told the synagogue official, “Don’t be afraid, just keep trusting.” ³⁷ He let no one follow him except Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Ya‘akov’s brother. ³⁸ When they came to the synagogue official’s house, he found a great commotion, with people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ On entering, he said to them, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead, she’s just asleep!” ⁴⁰ And they jeered at him. But he put them all outside, took the child’s father and mother and those with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her by the hand, he said to her, “Talita, kumi!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² At once the girl got up and began walking around; she was twelve years old. Everybody was utterly amazed. ⁴³ He gave them strict orders to say nothing about this to anyone, and told them to give her something to eat.