Mark6

¹Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him.

²And when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man learn these things, and what is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?

³Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are His sisters not here with us?” And they took offense at Him.

⁴Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonored except in his hometown and among his own relatives, and in his own household.”

⁵And He could not do any miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

⁶And He was amazed at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages, teaching.

⁷And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits;

⁸and He instructed them that they were to take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—

⁹but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not wear two tunics.”

¹⁰And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town.

¹¹Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.”

¹²And they went out and preached that people are to repent.

¹³And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

¹⁴And King Herod heard about it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.”

¹⁵But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”

¹⁶But when Herod heard about it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

¹⁷For Herod himself had sent men and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her.

¹⁸For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

¹⁹And Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, and could not do so;

²⁰for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he had been protecting him. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; and yet he used to enjoy listening to him.

²¹An opportune day came when Herod, on his birthday, held a banquet for his nobles and military commanders, and the leading people of Galilee;

²²and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”

²³And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you, up to half of my kingdom.”

²⁴And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

²⁵Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

²⁶And although the king was very sorry, because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her.

²⁷Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison,

²⁸and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.

²⁹When his disciples heard about this, they came and carried away his body, and laid it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.

³¹And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)

³²And they went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

³³The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.

³⁴When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

³⁵And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “This place is secluded and it is already late;

³⁶send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

³⁹And He ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass.

⁴⁰They reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties.

⁴¹And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²And they all ate and were satisfied;

⁴³and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces of bread, and of the fish.

⁴⁴There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

⁴⁵And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He Himself dismissed the crowd.

⁴⁶And after saying goodbye to them, He left for the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land.

⁴⁸Seeing them straining at the oars—for the wind was against them—at about the fourth watch of the night, He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.

⁴⁹But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out;

⁵⁰for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.”

⁵¹Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished,

⁵²for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored at the shore.

⁵⁴And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him,

⁵⁵and ran about that entire country and began carrying here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to wherever they heard He was.

⁵⁶And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or a countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and all who touched it were being healed.