hearted,†
to proclaim release to the captives,
recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
19 and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”*
20 He closed the scroll, gave it back to the shammash, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All testified about him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’ ” 24 He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”
28 They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue as they heard these things. 29 They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff. 30 But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.
31 He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath day, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority. 33 In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon; and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Yeshua of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”
35 Yeshua rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no harm.
36 Amazement came on all and they spoke together, one with another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 News about him went out into every place of the surrounding region.
38 He rose up from the synagogue and entered into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him to help her. 39 He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them. 40 When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. 41 Demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.
42 When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn’t go away from them. 43 But he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.” 44 He was proclaiming in the synagogues of Galilee.
5
1 Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night and caught nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.” 6 When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Yeshua’s knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.” 9 For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught; 10 and so also were Jacob and Yochanan, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
Yeshua said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”
11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.
12 While he was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man full of leprosy. When he saw Yeshua, he fell on his face and begged him, saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
13 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be made clean.”
Immediately the leprosy left him. 14 He commanded him to tell no one, “But go your way and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing according to what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”
15 But the report concerning him spread much more, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. 16 But he withdrew himself into the desert and prayed.
17 On one of those days, he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the Torah sitting by who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them. 18 Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before Yeshua. 19 Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the middle before Yeshua. 20 Seeing their faith, he said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”
22 But Yeshua, perceiving their thoughts, answered them, “Why are you reasoning so in your hearts? 23 Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, arise, take up your cot, and go to your house.”
25 Immediately he rose up before them, and took up that which he was laying on, and departed to his house, glorifying God. 26 Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”
27 After these things he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”
28 He left everything, and rose up and followed him. 29 Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. 30 Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Yeshua answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
33 They said to him, “Why do Yochanan’s disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?”
34 He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.”
36 He also told a parable to them. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. 39 No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”
6
1 Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”
3 Yeshua, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry,