Matthew 1-9

Complete Jewish Bible

1 This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Avraham:

¹⁸ Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. ¹⁹ Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. ²⁰ But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this happened in order to fulfill what Adonai had said through the prophet,

(The name means, “God is with us.”)

²⁴ When Yosef awoke he did what the angel of Adonai had told him to do — he took Miryam home to be his wife, ²⁵ but he did not have sexual relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Yeshua.

2 After Yeshua was born in Beit-Lechem in the land of Y’hudah during the time when Herod was king, Magi from the east came to Yerushalayim ² and asked, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard of this he became very agitated, and so did everyone else in Yerushalayim. ⁴ He called together all the head cohanim and Torah-teachers of the people and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?” ⁵ “In Beit-Lechem of Y’hudah,” they replied, “because the prophet wrote,

⁷ Herod summoned the Magi to meet with him privately and asked them exactly when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Beit-Lechem with these instructions: “Search carefully for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had listened to the king, they went away; and the star which they had seen in the east went in front of them until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ Upon entering the house, they saw the child with his mother Miryam; and they prostrated themselves and worshipped him. Then they opened their bags and presented him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² But they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they took another route back to their own country.

¹³ After they had gone, an angel of Adonai appeared to Yosef in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave. For Herod is going to look for the child in order to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until Herod died. This happened in order to fulfill what Adonai had said through the prophet,

¹⁶ Meanwhile, when Herod realized that the Magi had tricked him, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in and around Beit-Lechem who were two years old or less, calculating from the time the Magi had told him. ¹⁷ In this way were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Yirmeyahu,

¹⁹ After Herod’s death, an angel of Adonai appeared in a dream to Yosef in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to Eretz-Yisra’el, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Eretz-Yisra’el. ²² However, when he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Y’hudah, he was afraid to go there. Warned in a dream, he withdrew to the Galil ²³ and settled in a town called Natzeret, so that what had been spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he will be called a Natzrati.

3 It was during those days that Yochanan the Immerser arrived in the desert of Y’hudah and began proclaiming the message, ² “Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” ³ This is the man Yesha‘yahu was talking about when he said,

⁴ Yochanan wore clothes of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Yerushalayim, from all Y’hudah, and from the whole region around the Yarden. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were immersed by him in the Yarden River.

⁷ But when Yochanan saw many of the P’rushim and Tz’dukim coming to be immersed by him, he said to them, “You snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming punishment? ⁸ If you have really turned from your sins to God, produce fruit that will prove it! ⁹ And don’t suppose you can comfort yourselves by saying, ‘Avraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones! ¹⁰ Already the axe is at the root of the trees, ready to strike; every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown in the fire! ¹¹ It’s true that I am immersing you in water so that you might turn from sin to God; but the one coming after me is more powerful than I — I’m not worthy even to carry his sandals — and he will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and in fire. ¹² He has with him his winnowing fork; and he will clear out his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn but burning up the straw with unquenchable fire!”

¹³ Then Yeshua came from the Galil to the Yarden to be immersed by Yochanan. ¹⁴ But Yochanan tried to stop him. “You are coming to me? I ought to be immersed by you!” ¹⁵ However, Yeshua answered him, “Let it be this way now, because we should do everything righteousness requires.” Then Yochanan let him. ¹⁶ As soon as Yeshua had been immersed, he came up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, he saw the Spirit of God coming down upon him like a dove, ¹⁷ and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with him.”

4 Then the Spirit led Yeshua up into the wilderness to be tempted by the Adversary. ² After Yeshua had fasted forty days and nights, he was hungry. ³ The Tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order these stones to become bread.” ⁴ But he answered, “The Tanakh says,

⁵ Then the Adversary took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the Temple. ⁶ “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “jump! For the Tanakh says,

⁷ Yeshua replied to him, “But it also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”^[h]

⁸ Once more, the Adversary took him up to the summit of a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, ⁹ and said to him, “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.” ¹⁰ “Away with you, Satan!” Yeshua told him, “For the Tanakh says,

¹¹ Then the Adversary let him alone, and angels came and took care of him.

¹² When Yeshua heard that Yochanan had been put in prison, he returned to the Galil; ¹³ but he left Natzeret and came to live in K’far-Nachum, a lake shore town near the boundary between Z’vulun and Naftali. ¹⁴ This happened in order to fulfill what Yesha‘yahu the prophet had said,

¹⁷ From that time on, Yeshua began proclaiming, “Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”

¹⁸ As Yeshua walked by Lake Kinneret, he saw two brothers who were fishermen — Shim‘on, known as Kefa, and his brother Andrew — throwing their net into the lake. ¹⁹ Yeshua said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men!” ²⁰ At once they left their nets and went with him.

²¹ Going on from there, he saw two other brothers — Ya’akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan his brother — in the boat with their father Zavdai, repairing their nets; and he called them. ²² At once they left the boat and their father and went with Yeshua.

²³ Yeshua went all over the Galil teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing people from every kind of disease and sickness. ²⁴ Word of him spread throughout all Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill, suffering from various diseases and pains, and those held in the power of demons, and epileptics and paralytics; and he healed them. ²⁵ Huge crowds followed him from the Galil, the Ten Towns, Yerushalayim, Y’hudah, and ‘Ever-HaYarden.

5 Seeing the crowds, Yeshua walked up the hill. After he sat down, his talmidim came to him, ² and he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

¹¹ “How blessed you are when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of vicious lies about you because you follow me! ¹² Rejoice, be glad, because your reward in heaven is great — they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.

¹³ “You are salt for the Land. But if salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except being thrown out for people to trample on.

¹⁴ “You are light for the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don’t cover it with a bowl but put it on a lampstand, so that it shines for everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

¹⁷ “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. ¹⁸ Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened. ¹⁹ So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

²¹ “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Do not murder,’^[l] and that anyone who commits murder will be subject to judgment. ²² But I tell you that anyone who nurses anger against his brother will be subject to judgment; that whoever calls his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Sanhedrin; that whoever says, ‘Fool!’ incurs the penalty of burning in the fire of Gei-Hinnom! ²³ So if you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember there that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift. ²⁵ If someone sues you, come to terms with him quickly, while you and he are on the way to court; or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer of the court, and you may be thrown in jail! ²⁶ Yes indeed! I tell you, you will certainly not get out until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷ “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Do not commit adultery.’^{[m] 28} But I tell you that a man who even looks at a woman with the purpose of lusting after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye makes you sin, gouge it out and throw it away! Better that you should lose one part of you than have your whole body thrown into Gei-Hinnom. ³⁰ And if your right hand makes you sin, cut it off and throw it away! Better that you should lose one part of you than have your whole body thrown into Gei-Hinnom.

³¹ “It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a get.’^{[n] 32} But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of fornication, makes her an adulteress; and that anyone who marries a divorcee commits adultery.

³³ “Again, you have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Do not break your oath,’ and ‘Keep your vows to Adonai.’^{[o] 34} But I tell you not to swear at all — not ‘by heaven,’ because it is God’s throne; ³⁵ not ‘by the earth,’ because it is his footstool;^[p] and not ‘by Yerushalayim,’ because it is the city of the Great King.^{[q] 36} And don’t swear by your head, because you can’t make a single hair white or black. ³⁷ Just let your ‘Yes’ be a simple ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ a simple ‘No’; anything more than this has its origin in evil.

³⁸ “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’^{[r] 39} But I tell you not to stand up against someone who does you wrong. On the contrary, if someone hits you on the right cheek, let him hit you on the left cheek too! ⁴⁰ If someone wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well! ⁴¹ And if a soldier forces you to carry his pack for one mile, carry it for two! ⁴² When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something from you, lend it to him.

⁴³ “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbor^[s] — and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. ⁴⁶ What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! ⁴⁷ And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! ⁴⁸ Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

6 “Be careful not to parade your acts of tzedakah in front of people in order to be seen by them! If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² So, when you do tzedakah, don’t announce it with trumpets to win people’s praise, like the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the streets. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! ³ But you, when you do tzedakah, don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. ⁴ Then your tzedakah will be in secret; and your Father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you.

⁵ “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners, so that people can see them. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! ⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

⁷ “And when you pray, don’t babble on and on like the pagans, who think God will hear them better if they talk a lot. ⁸ Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹ You, therefore, pray like this:

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will not forgive yours.

¹⁶ “Now when you fast, don’t go around looking miserable, like the hypocrites. They make sour faces so that people will know they are fasting. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! ¹⁷ But you, when you fast, wash your face and groom yourself, ¹⁸ so that no one will know you are fasting — except your Father, who is with you in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves wealth here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and burglars break in and steal. ²⁰ Instead, store up for yourselves wealth in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and burglars do not break in or steal. ²¹ For where your wealth is, there your heart will be also. ²² ‘The eye is the lamp of the body.’ So if you have a ‘good eye’ [that is, if you are generous] your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if you have an ‘evil eye’ [if you are stingy] your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! ²⁴ No one can be slave to two masters; for he will either hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be loyal to the first. You can’t be a slave to both God and money.

²⁵ “Therefore, I tell you, don’t worry about your life — what you will eat or drink; or about your body — what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds flying about! They neither plant nor harvest, nor do they gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they are? ²⁷ Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to his life?

²⁸ “And why be anxious about clothing? Think about the fields of wild irises, and how they grow. They neither work nor spin thread, ²⁹ yet I tell you that not even Shlomo in all his glory was clothed as beautifully as one of these. ³⁰ If this is how God clothes grass in the field — which is here today and gone tomorrow, thrown in an oven — won’t he much more clothe you? What little trust you have!

³¹ “So don’t be anxious, asking, ‘What will we eat?,’ ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘How will we be clothed?’ ³² For it is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. ³³ But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Don’t worry about tomorrow — tomorrow will worry about itself! Today has enough tsuris already!

7 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. ² For the way you judge others is how you will be judged — the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you. ³ Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when you have the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye!

⁶ “Don’t give to dogs what is holy, and don’t throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, then turn and attack you.

⁷ “Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who keeps asking receives; he who keeps seeking finds; and to him who keeps knocking, the door will be opened. ⁹ Is there anyone here who, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will your Father in heaven keep giving good things to those who keep asking him!

¹² “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets.

¹³ “Go in through the narrow gate; for the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the road broad, and many travel it; ¹⁴ but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

¹⁵ “Beware of the false prophets! They come to you wearing sheep’s clothing, but underneath they are hungry wolves! ¹⁶ You will recognize them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every healthy tree produces good fruit, but a poor tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit. ¹⁹ Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire! ²⁰ So you will recognize them by their fruit.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. ²² On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³ Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’^[u]

²⁴ “So, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on bedrock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the winds blew and beat against that house, but it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the wind blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed — and its collapse was horrendous!”

²⁸ When Yeshua had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at the way he taught, ²⁹ for he was not instructing them like their Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.

8 After Yeshua had come down from the hill, large crowds followed him. ² Then a man afflicted with tzara‘at came, kneeled down in front of him and said, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³ Yeshua reached out his hand, touched him and said, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” And at once he was cleansed from his tzara‘at. ⁴ Then Yeshua said to him, “See that you tell no one; but as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer the sacrifice that Moshe commanded.”

⁵ As Yeshua entered K’far-Nachum, a Roman army officer came up and pleaded for help. ⁶ “Sir, my orderly is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly!” ⁷ Yeshua said, “I will go and heal him.” ⁸ But the officer answered, “Sir, I am unfit to have you come into my home. Rather, if you will only give the command, my orderly will recover. ⁹ For I too am a man under authority. I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ On hearing this Yeshua was amazed and said to the people following him, “Yes! I tell you, I have not found anyone in Isra’el with such trust! ¹¹ Moreover, I tell you that many will come from the east and from the west to take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven with Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov. ¹² But those born for the Kingdom will be thrown outside in the dark, where people will wail and grind their teeth!” ¹³ Then Yeshua said to the officer, “Go; let it be for you as you have trusted.” And his orderly was healed at that very moment.

¹⁴ Yeshua went to Kefa’s home and there saw Kefa’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she got up and began helping him.

¹⁶ When evening came, many people held in the power of demons were brought to him. He expelled the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill. ¹⁷ This was done to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Yesha‘yahu,

¹⁸ When Yeshua saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ A Torah-teacher approached and said to him, “Rabbi, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ Yeshua said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.” ²¹ Another of the talmidim said to him, “Sir, first let me go and bury my father.” ²² But Yeshua replied, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

²³ He boarded the boat, and his talmidim followed. ²⁴ Then, without warning, a furious storm arose on the lake, so that waves were sweeping over the boat. But Yeshua was sleeping. ²⁵ So they came and roused him, saying, “Sir! Help! We’re about to die!” ²⁶ He said to them, “Why are you afraid? So little trust you have!” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a dead calm. ²⁷ The men were astounded. They asked, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?”

²⁸ When Yeshua arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gadarenes’ territory, there came out of the burial caves two men controlled by demons, so violent that no one dared travel on that road. ²⁹ They screamed, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” ³⁰ Now some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. ³¹ The demons begged him, “If you are going to drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” ³² “All right, go!” he told them. So they came out and went into the pigs, whereupon the entire herd rushed down the hillside into the lake and drowned. ³³ The swineherds fled, went off to the town and told the whole story, including what had happened to the demonized men. ³⁴ At this, the whole town came out to meet Yeshua. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their district.

9 So he stepped into a boat, crossed the lake again and came to his own town. ² Some people brought him a paralyzed man lying on a mattress. When Yeshua saw their trust, he said to the paralyzed man, “Courage, son! Your sins are forgiven.” ³ On seeing this, some of the Torah-teachers said among themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” ⁴ Yeshua, knowing what they were thinking, said, “Why are you entertaining evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵ Tell me, which is easier to say — ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶ But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your mattress, and go home!” ⁷ And the man got up and went home. ⁸ When the crowds saw this, they were awestruck and said a b’rakhah to God the Giver of such authority to human beings.

⁹ As Yeshua passed on from there he spotted a tax-collector named Mattityahu sitting in his collection booth. He said to him, “Follow me!” and he got up and followed him.

¹⁰ While Yeshua was in the house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners came and joined him and his talmidim at the meal. ¹¹ When the P’rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, “Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” ¹² But Yeshua heard the question and answered, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. ¹³ As for you, go and learn what this means: ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’^[w] For I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous,’ but sinners!”

¹⁴ Next, Yochanan’s talmidim came to him and asked, “Why is it that we and the P’rushim fast frequently, but your talmidim don’t fast at all?” ¹⁵ Yeshua said to them, “Can wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunk cloth, because the patch tears away from the coat and leaves a worse hole. ¹⁷ Nor do people put new wine in old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. No, they pour new wine into freshly prepared wineskins, and in this way both are preserved.”

¹⁸ While he was talking, an official came in, kneeled down in front of him and said, “My daughter has just died. But if you come and lay your hand on her, she will live.” ¹⁹ Yeshua, with his talmidim, got up and followed him.

²⁰ A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years approached him from behind and touched the tzitzit on his robe. ²¹ For she said to herself, “If I can only touch his robe, I will be healed.” ²² Yeshua turned, saw her and said, “Courage, daughter! Your trust has healed you.” And she was instantly healed.

²³ When Yeshua arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute-players, and the crowd in an uproar, ²⁴ he said, “Everybody out! The girl isn’t dead, she’s only sleeping!” And they jeered at him. ²⁵ But after the people had been put outside, he entered and took hold of the girl’s hand, and she got up. ²⁶ News of this spread through all that region.

²⁷ As Yeshua went on from there, two blind men began following him, shouting, “Son of David! Take pity on us!” ²⁸ When he entered the house, the blind men came up, and Yeshua said to them, “Do you believe that I have the power to do this?” They replied, “Yes, sir.” ²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it happen to you according to your trust”; ³⁰ and their sight was restored. Yeshua warned them severely, “See that no one knows about it.” ³¹ But instead, they went away and talked about him throughout that district.

³² As they were going, a man controlled by a demon and unable to speak was brought to Yeshua. ³³ After the demon was expelled the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Isra’el,” they said. ³⁴ But the P’rushim said, “It is through the ruler of the demons that he expels demons.”

³⁵ Yeshua went about all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and weakness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his talmidim, “The harvest is rich, but the workers are few. ³⁸ Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers to gather in his harvest.”