Jesus Feeds More than Five Thousand People^(A)

¹³ When Jesus heard this, he left that place and went^[a] by boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of it and followed him on foot from the neighboring^[b] towns. ¹⁴ When he got out of the boat,^[c] he saw a large crowd. He had compassion for them and healed their sick. ¹⁵ When evening had come, the disciples went to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and it’s already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

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

¹⁷ They told him, “We don’t have anything here except five loaves of bread and two fish.”

¹⁸ He said, “Bring them to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them^[d] to the crowds. ²⁰ All of them ate and were filled. Then the disciples^[e] picked up what was left of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹ Now those who had eaten were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.

Jesus Feeds More than Five Thousand People^(A)

¹⁰ The apostles came back and told Jesus^[a] everything they had done. Then he took them away with him privately to a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹ But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them and began to speak to them about the kingdom of God and to heal those who needed healing.

¹² As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away to the neighboring villages and farms so they can rest and get some food, because we are here in a deserted place.”

¹³ But he told them, “You give them something to eat.”

They replied, “We have nothing more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

¹⁴ Now there were about 5,000 men. So he told his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50.” ¹⁵ They did this and got all of them seated. ¹⁶ Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces and kept giving them to the disciples to pass on to the crowd. ¹⁷ All of them ate and were filled. When they collected the leftover pieces, there were twelve baskets.

Jesus Feeds More than Five Thousand^(A)

6 After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (that is, to Tiberias). ² A large crowd kept following him because they had seen the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. ³ But Jesus went up on a hillside and sat down there with his disciples.

⁴ Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. ⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ Jesus^[a] said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii^[b] worth of bread isn’t enough for each of them to have a little.”

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter’s brother, told him, ⁹ “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are these among so many people?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was plenty of grass in that area, so they sat down, numbering about 5,000 men.

¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated. He also distributed^[c] as much fish as they wanted. ¹² When they were completely satisfied, Jesus^[d] told his disciples, “Collect the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³ So they collected and filled twelve baskets full of pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign^[e] that he had done, they kept saying, “Truly this is the Prophet who was to come into the world!”