Matthew 12:1-50
12 At that season Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath.+ His disciples got hungry and started to pluck heads of grain and to eat.+
2 At seeing this the Pharisees said to him:+ “Look! Your disciples are doing what it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.”+
3 He said to them: “Have YOU not read what David did when he and the men with him got hungry?+
4 How he entered into the house of God and they ate the loaves of presentation,*+ something that it was not lawful+ for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests only?+
5 Or, have YOU not read in the Law+ that on the sabbaths the priests in the temple treat the sabbath as not sacred and continue guiltless?+
6 But I tell YOU that something greater than the temple+ is here.
7 However, if YOU had understood what this means,* ‘I want mercy,+ and not sacrifice,’+ YOU would not have condemned the guiltless ones.
8 For Lord of the sabbath+ is what the Son of man is.”+
9 After departing from that place he went into their synagogue;
10 and, look! a man with a withered hand!+ So they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” that they might get an accusation against him.+
11 He said to them: “Who will be the man among YOU that has one sheep and, if this falls into a pit+ on the sabbath, will not get hold of it and lift it out?+
12 All considered, of how much more worth is a man than a sheep!+ So it is lawful to do a fine thing on the sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man: “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored sound like the other hand.+
14 But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him that they might destroy him.+
15 Having come to know [this], Jesus withdrew from there. Many also followed him, and he cured them all,+
16 but he strictly charged them not to make him manifest;+
17 that there might be fulfilled what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, who said:
18 “Look! My servant+ whom I chose, my beloved,+ whom my soul approved! I will put my spirit upon him,+ and what justice is he will make clear to the nations.
19 He will not wrangle,+ nor cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the broad ways.
20 No bruised reed will he crush, and no smoldering flaxen wick will he extinguish,+ until he sends out justice+ with success.*
21 Indeed, in his name nations will hope.”+
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man, blind and dumb; and he cured him, so that the dumb man spoke and saw.
23 Well, all the crowds were simply carried away and began to say:+ “May this not perhaps be the Son of David?”+
24 At hearing this, the Pharisees said: “This fellow does not expel the demons except by means of Be·elʹze·bub,* the ruler of the demons.”+
25 Knowing their thoughts,+ he said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself comes to desolation,+ and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
26 In the same way, if Satan expels Satan, he has become divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand?
27 Moreover, if I expel the demons by means of Be·elʹze·bub,+ by means of whom do YOUR sons expel them? This is why they will be judges of YOU.
28 But if it is by means of God’s spirit that I expel the demons, the kingdom of God has really overtaken YOU.+
29 Or how can anyone invade the house of a strong man and seize his movable goods, unless first he binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.+
30 He that is not on my side is against me, and he that does not gather with me scatters.+
31 “On this account I say to YOU, Every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven.+
32 For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him;+ but whoever speaks against the holy spirit,* it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things* nor in that to come.+
33 “Either YOU people make the tree fine and its fruit fine or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for by its fruit the tree is known.+
34 Offspring of vipers,+ how can YOU speak good things, when YOU are wicked?+ For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.+
35 The good man out of his good treasure sends out good things,+ whereas the wicked man out of his wicked treasure sends out wicked things.+
36 I tell YOU that every unprofitable saying that men speak, they will render an account+ concerning it on Judgment Day;
37 for by your words you will be declared righteous, and by your words you will be condemned.”+
38 Then as an answer to him some of the scribes and Pharisees said: “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”+
39 In reply he said to them: “A wicked and adulterous+ generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Joʹnah the prophet.+
40 For just as Joʹnah+ was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man+ will be in the heart of the earth+ three days and three nights.+
41 Men of Ninʹe·veh will rise up in the judgment with this generation+ and will condemn+ it; because they repented at what Joʹnah+ preached,* but, look! something more than Joʹnah is here.
42 The queen of the south+ will be raised up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; because she came from the ends* of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solʹo·mon, but, look! something more than Solʹo·mon is here.+
43 “When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through parched places in search of a resting-place, and finds none.+
44 Then it says, ‘I will go back to my house out of which I moved’; and on arriving it finds it unoccupied but swept clean and adorned.
45 Then it goes its way and takes along with it seven different spirits more wicked than itself,+ and, after getting inside, they dwell there; and the final circumstances of that man become worse than the first.+ That is how it will be also with this wicked generation.”+
46 While he was yet speaking to the crowds, look! his mother and brothers+ took up a position outside seeking to speak to him.
47 So someone said to him: “Look! Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to you.”*
48 As an answer he said to the one telling him: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”+
49 And extending his hand toward his disciples, he said: “Look! My mother and my brothers!+
50 For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
Footnotes
^ Or, “showbread.” Lit., “loaves of the presentation.” Gr., arʹtous tes pro·theʹse·os; J22(Heb.), leʹchem hap·pa·nimʹ. See Ex 25:30 ftn.
^ Or, “to victory.”
^ “Beelzebub,” VgSyc,p,s; CDWSyhArm, “Beelzeboul”; אB, “Beezeboul”; possibly meaning “Lord of the Habitation,” or, if a play on the non-Biblical Heb. word zeʹvel (dung), “Lord of Dung.” Compare 2Ki 1:2 ftn, “Baal-zebub.”
^ Lit., “might speak down on the holy spirit.”
^ Or, “order of things.” Gr., ai·oʹni; Lat., saeʹcu·lo; J1-14,16-18(Heb.), va·ʽoh·lamʹ, “in the order of things.”
^ Lit., “the preaching of Jonah.” Gr., to keʹryg·ma I·o·naʹ; Lat., prae·di·ca·ti·oʹne Ioʹnae.
^ א*BSyc,s omit vs 47.
