Five Thousand Fed

¹³ When Jesus heard about John, He left there privately in a boat and went to a secluded place. But when the crowds heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.^{(A) 14} When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt [profound] compassion for them and healed their sick.

¹⁵ When evening came, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is an isolated place and the hour is already late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” ¹⁷ They replied, “We have nothing here except five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ He said, “Bring them here to Me.” ¹⁹ Then He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and He took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking up toward heaven, He blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people, ²⁰ and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up twelve full baskets of the leftover broken pieces. ²¹ There were about 5,000 men who ate, besides women and children.

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they told Him all that they had done. He took them with Him and He privately withdrew [across the Jordan] to a city called Bethsaida.^{(A) 11} But when the crowds learned of it, they followed Him; and He welcomed them and He began talking to them about the kingdom of God, and healing those who needed to be healed.

Five Thousand Fed

¹² Now the day was ending, and the twelve [disciples] came and said to Him, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging, and get provisions; because here we are in an isolated place.” ¹³ But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.”^{(B) 14} (For there were ^[a]about 5,000 men.) And He said to His disciples, “Have them sit down to eat in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ They did so, and had them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and He looked up to heaven [and gave thanks] and blessed them, and broke them and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷ They all ate and were [completely] satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over were [abundant and were] picked up—twelve baskets full.

Five Thousand Fed

6 After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or ^[a]Sea of Tiberias).^{(A) 2} A large crowd was following Him because they had seen the signs (attesting miracles) which He continually performed on those who were sick. ³ And Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down there with His disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was approaching.^{(B) 5} Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming toward Him, and He said to Philip, “Where will we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ But He said this to test Philip, because He knew what He was about to do. ⁷ Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii (200 days’ wages) worth of bread is not enough for each one to receive even a little.” ⁸ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ⁹ “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many people?” ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down [to eat].” Now [the ground] there was [covered with] an abundance of grass, so the men sat down, about ^[b]5,000 in number. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; the same also with the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹² When they had eaten enough, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost.” ¹³ So they gathered them up, and they filled twelve large baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.