Old/New Testament

6 Jesus was walking through the grain fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples picked some of the grain as they went along. They cleaned it by rubbing it in their hands, and ate it.

² Some of the Pharisees said, `Why do your disciples do what is not right on the Sabbath day?"

³ Jesus answered them, `Have you not read what David did? He and his men were hungry.

⁴ He went into God's house. Some bread was there for God. But David took the bread and ate it. He also gave some of it to the men who were with him. Only the priests have the right to eat that bread.'

⁵ Jesus said to them, `The Son of Man rules over the Sabbath day.'

⁶ On another Sabbath day, Jesus went into the meeting house and taught. A man was there whose right hand was thin and weak.

⁷ The scribes and Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day. They wanted to find something wrong about Jesus.

⁸ But Jesus knew what they were thinking. He spoke to the man whose hand was thin and weak. He said, `Come and stand here in front' The man stood up.

⁹ Jesus said to them, `I ask you, is it right to do good things on the Sabbath day, or to do wrong things? Is it right to heal people so that they will live, or to let them die?'

¹⁰ He looked around at them all. Then he said to the man, `Hold out your hand.' The man did so and it was made well like the other hand.

¹¹ The Pharisees were very angry and they talked together about what they could do to Jesus.

¹² About that time Jesus went out of the city on the hill to talk with God. He talked with God all night.

¹³ In the morning he called his disciples to him. He chose twelve of them and called them apostles [special messengers].

^14-16 hey were Simon, whom Jesus called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the freedom fighter, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, the one who gave Jesus over to people who hated him.

¹⁷ Then Jesus came down the hill with them and stood on the flat ground. Many people came. There were many of his disciples. And there were many people from all parts of Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from the seaside of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed because they were sick.

¹⁸ Some were troubled by bad spirits, and they were healed.

¹⁹ All the people wanted to touch Jesus. Power came from him and he healed them all.

²⁰ Jesus looked at his disciples and said, `God will make happy you who are poor. The kingdom of God is for you.

²¹ `God will make happy you who are hungry now. You will be filled. `God will make happy you who cry now. You will laugh.

²² `God will make you happy when people hate you, when they will not let you belong to their group, when they say wrong things about you and make your name bad. God blesses you when it is for the sake of the Son of Man.

²³ Be very happy on that day and dance for joy. God will be good to you in heaven. The fathers of these people did the same things to the prophets of God long ago.

²⁴ `But you who are rich will have trouble. You have already had your good times.

²⁵ `You who have all you want now will have trouble! You will be hungry. `You who laugh now will have trouble. You will be sad and cry.

²⁶ `When all the people praise you, you will have trouble! The fathers of these people did the same things to those who were not true prophets of God.'