Matthew 13
1 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea.
2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.
3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, ``Behold, the sower went out to sow;
4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.
5 ``Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.
6 ``But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 ``Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
8 ``And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
9 ``He who has ears, let him hear."
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, ``Why do You speak to them in parables?"
11 Jesus answered them, ``To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.
12 ``For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
13 ``Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 ``In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, `YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE;
15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'
16 ``But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.
17 ``For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
18 ``Hear then the parable of the sower.
19 ``When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.
20 ``The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
22 ``And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
23 ``And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."
24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, ``The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 ``But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
26 ``But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
27 ``The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, `Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
28 ``And he said to them, `An enemy has done this!' The slaves said to him, `Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'
29 ``But he said, `No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
30 `Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ``First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
31 He presented another parable to them, saying, ``The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;
32 and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES."
33 He spoke another parable to them, ``The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened."
34 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable.
35 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ``I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD."
36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, ``Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field."
37 And He said, ``The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;
39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
40 ``So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
41 ``The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 ``Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
44 ``The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 ``Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls,
46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47 ``Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind;
48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away.
49 ``So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous,
50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 ``Have you understood all these things?" They said to Him, ``Yes."
52 And Jesus said to them, ``Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old."
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there.
54 He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ``Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?
55 ``Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
56 ``And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"
57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, ``A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."
58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
Matthew 14
1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus,
2 and said to his servants, ``This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him."
3 For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.
4 For John had been saying to him, ``It is not lawful for you to have her."
5 Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded John as a prophet.
6 But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod,
7 so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.
8 Having been prompted by her mother, she said, ``Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist."
9 Although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests.
10 He sent and had John beheaded in the prison.
11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.
12 His disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus.
13 Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.
14 When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.
15 When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, ``This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
16 But Jesus said to them, ``They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!"
17 They said to Him, ``We have here only five loaves and two fish."
18 And He said, ``Bring them here to Me."
19 Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds,
20 and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.
21 There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.
22 Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away.
23 After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
24 But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary.
25 And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea.
26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, ``It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear.
27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ``Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid."
28 Peter said to Him, ``Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."
29 And He said, ``Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
30 But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ``Lord, save me!"
31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ``You of little faith, why did you doubt?"
32 When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.
33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, ``You are certainly God's Son!"
34 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.
35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding district and brought to Him all who were sick;
36 and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.
Matthew 15
1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
2 ``Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."
3 And He answered and said to them, ``Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
4 ``For God said, `HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, `HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'
5 ``But you say, `Whoever says to his father or mother, ``Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God, "
6 he is not to honor his father or his mother .' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
7 ``You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
8 `THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
9 `BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"
10 After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, ``Hear and understand.
11 `` It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."
12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, ``Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?"
13 But He answered and said, ``Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.
14 ``Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
15 Peter said to Him, ``Explain the parable to us."
16 Jesus said, ``Are you still lacking in understanding also?
17 ``Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
18 ``But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
19 ``For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
20 ``These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."
21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.
22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, ``Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed."
23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, ``Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us."
24 But He answered and said, ``I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, ``Lord, help me!"
26 And He answered and said, ``It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
27 But she said, ``Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."
28 Then Jesus said to her, ``O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once.
29 Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there.
30 And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them.
31 So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
32 And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, ``I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way."
33 The disciples said to Him, ``Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?"
34 And Jesus said to them, ``How many loaves do you have?" And they said, ``Seven, and a few small fish."
35 And He directed the people to sit down on the ground;
36 and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
37 And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full.
38 And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.
39 And sending away the crowds, Jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan.
