More than Five Thousand Fed^(A)

¹³ When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a ·lonely [isolated; deserted] place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he ·arrived [landed; came ashore], he saw a great crowd waiting. He ·felt sorry [had compassion] for them and healed those who were sick.

¹⁵ When it was evening, his ·followers [disciples] came to him and said, “·No one lives in this [This is a remote/deserted] place, and it is already late. Send the people away so they can go to the ·towns [villages] and buy food for themselves.”

¹⁶ But Jesus answered, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ They said to him, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.”

¹⁸ Jesus said, “Bring ·the bread and the fish [^Lthem here] to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ·told [commanded; ordered] the people to ·sit down [recline] on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking to heaven, he ·thanked God for [blessed] the food. Jesus ·divided [broke] the bread and gave it to his ·followers [disciples], who gave it to the people. ²⁰ All the people ate and were satisfied. Then ·the followers [^Lthey] filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of food. ²¹ There were about five thousand men there who ate, not counting women and children.

³² So they went in a boat by themselves to a ·lonely [isolated; deserted] place. ³³ But many people saw them leave and recognized them. So from all the towns they ran to the place where Jesus was going, and they got there before him. ³⁴ When he ·arrived [landed; came ashore], he saw a great crowd waiting. He ·felt sorry [had compassion] for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it was late in the day, his ·followers [disciples] came to him and said, “·No one lives in this place [This is a remote/deserted place], and it is already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so they can go to the countryside and towns around here to buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ But Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, ·“We would all have to work a month to earn enough money to buy that much bread!” [^L“Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”]

³⁸ Jesus asked them, “How many loaves of bread do you have? Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five loaves and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus ·told [commanded; ordered] ·his followers [^Lthem] to have the people sit [recline; ^Cthe posture for a banquet or dinner party; 2:15] in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves and two fish and, looking up to heaven, he ·thanked God for [blessed] the food. He ·divided [broke] the bread and gave it to his ·followers [disciples] for them to give to the people. Then he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² All the people ate and were satisfied. ⁴³ ·The followers [^LThey] filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ There were five thousand men who ate.

More than Five Thousand Fed^(A)

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then Jesus took them with him to a town called Bethsaida where they could be alone together. ¹¹ But the ·people [crowds] learned where Jesus went and followed him. He welcomed them and talked with them about God’s kingdom and healed those who needed to be healed.

¹² Late in the afternoon, ·the twelve apostles [^Lthe Twelve] came to Jesus and said, “Send the ·people [crowd] away. They need to go to the ·towns [villages] and countryside around here and find places to sleep and something to eat, because ·no one lives in this [^Lwe are in a remote/deserted] place.”

¹³ But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

They said, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish, unless we go buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (There were about five thousand men there.)

Jesus said to his ·followers [disciples], “Tell the people to sit in groups of about fifty people.”

¹⁵ So ·the followers [^Lthey] did this, and all the people sat down. ¹⁶ Then Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two fish, and looking up to heaven, he ·thanked God for [^Lblessed] the food. Then he ·divided the food [broke it into pieces] and gave it to the ·followers [disciples] to ·give to [distribute to; ^Lset before] the people. ¹⁷ They all ate and were ·satisfied [filled], and what was left over was gathered up, filling twelve baskets.

More than Five Thousand Fed^(A)

6 After this, Jesus went ·across [to the other side of] ·Lake [^Tthe Sea of] Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias). ² Many people followed him because they saw the ·miracles [^Lsigns; 2:11] he did ·to heal [^Lfor; on behalf of] the sick. ³ Jesus went up on a ·hill [or mountain] and sat down there with his ·followers [disciples]. ⁴ It was almost the time for the Jewish Passover Feast [^Cthe annual festival that celebrates God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt; Ex. 12; John 2:13].

⁵ When Jesus ·looked up [^Lraised his eyes] and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip [^Cone of the twelve disciples; 1:43], “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?” ⁶ (Jesus asked Philip this question to test him, because Jesus already knew what he ·planned [was going] to do.)

⁷ Philip answered [^Lhim], “·Someone would have to work almost a year to buy enough bread [^LTwo hundred denarii worth of bread is not enough; ^Ca denarius was a unit of money worth about a day’s wages] for each person to have only a little piece.”

⁸ Another one of his ·followers [disciples], Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish, but ·that is not enough [^Lwhat are these…?] for so many people.”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “·Tell [^LMake] the people to sit down.” There was plenty of grass there, and about five thousand men sat down there. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves of bread, ·thanked God [^Lgave thanks] for them, and ·gave [distributed] them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as the people wanted.

¹² When they ·had all had enough to eat [^Lwere filled/satisfied], Jesus said to his ·followers [disciples], “Gather the leftover ·pieces of fish and bread [^Lpieces] so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left from the five barley loaves [2 Kin. 4:42–44; ^CJesus’ miracle surpasses that of Elisha].

¹⁴ When the people saw this ·miracle [^Lsign] that Jesus did, they said, “He must truly be the Prophet [1:21; ^Cprobably the “prophet like Moses” of Deut. 18:15–18] who is coming into the world.”

¹⁵ Jesus knew that the people ·planned [intended; were about] to come and take him by force and make him their king, so he ·left [withdrew] and went into the ·hills [or mountains] alone.