Old/New Testament
A gentile’s faith in Jesus
21-22 Jesus left that place and retired into the Tyre and Sidon district. There a Canaanite woman from those parts came to him crying at the top of her voice, “Lord, have pity on me! My daughter is in a terrible state—a devil has got into her!”
23 Jesus made no answer, and the disciples came up to him and said, “Do send her away—she’s still following us and calling out.”
24 “I was only sent,” replied Jesus, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 Then the woman came and knelt at his feet. “Lord, help me,” she said.
26 “It is not right, you know,” Jesus replied, “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs live on the scraps that fall from their master’s table!”
28 “You certainly don’t lack faith,” returned Jesus, “it shall be as you wish.” And at that moment her daughter was cured.
Jesus heals and feeds vast crowds of people
29-31 Jesus left there, walked along the shore of the lake of Galilee, then climbed the hill and sat down. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them people who were lame, crippled, blind, dumb and many others. They simply put them down at his feet and he healed them. The result was that the people were astonished at seeing dumb men speak, crippled men healed, lame men walking about and blind men having recovered their sight. And they praised the God of Israel.
32 But Jesus quietly called his disciples to him. “My heart goes out to this crowd,” he said. “They’ve stayed with me three days now and have no more food. I don’t want to send them home without anything or they will collapse on the way.”
33 “Where could we find enough food to feed such a crowd in this deserted spot?” said the disciples.
34 “How many loaves have you?” asked Jesus. “Seven, and a few small fish,” they replied.
35-39 Then Jesus told the crowd to sit down comfortably on the ground. And when he had taken the seven loaves and the fish into his hands, he broke them with a prayer of thanksgiving and gave them to the disciples to pass on to the people. Everybody ate and was satisfied, and they picked up seven baskets full of the pieces left over. Those who ate numbered four thousand men apart from women and children. Then Jesus sent the crowds home, boarded the boat and arrived at the district of Magadan.
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.