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)

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. ³¹ He told them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while,” because so many people were coming and going^[a] that they didn’t even have time to eat. ³² So they went away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³ But when many people saw them leave and recognized them, they hurried on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴ When he got out of the boat,^[b] he saw a large crowd. He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it was quite late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and it’s already late. ³⁶ Send the crowds^[c] away so that they can go to the neighboring farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

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

They asked him, “Should we go and buy 200 denarii^[d] worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”

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

They found out and told him, “Five loaves^[e] and two fish.”

³⁹ Then he ordered them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ 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 his disciples to set before the people.^[f] He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² All of them ate and were filled. ⁴³ Then the disciples^[g] picked up twelve baskets full of leftover bread and fish. ⁴⁴ There were 5,000 men who had eaten the loaves.

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.