Matthew

¹ When Jesus had come down from the hill, great crowds followed him.

² He saw a leper who came up, and bowed to the ground before him, and said, “Master, if only you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”

³ Stretching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying as he did so, “I am willing; become clean.” Instantly he was made clean from his leprosy;

⁴ and then Jesus said to him, “Be careful not to say a word to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure.”

⁵ After Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion in the Roman army came up to him, entreating his help.

⁶ “Sir,” he said, “my manservant is lying ill at my house with a stroke of paralysis, and is suffering terribly.”

⁷ “I will come and cure him,” answered Jesus.

⁸ “Sir,” the centurion went on, “I am unworthy to receive you under my roof; but only speak, and my manservant will be cured.

⁹ For I myself am a man under the orders of others, with soldiers under me; and, if I say to one of them ‘Go,’ he goes, and to another ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this,’ he does it.”

¹⁰ Jesus was surprised to hear this, and said to those who were following him, “Never I tell you, in any Israelite have I met with such faith as this!

¹¹ Yes, and many will come in from East and West and take their places beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;

¹² while the heirs to the kingdom will be banished into the darkness outside; there, there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”

¹³ Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go now, and it will be according to your faith.” And the man was cured that very hour.

¹⁴ When Jesus went into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law prostrated with fever.

¹⁵ On his taking her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and began to take care of him.

¹⁶ In the evening the people brought to Jesus many who were possessed by demons; and he drove out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were ill,

¹⁷ in fulfillment of these words in the prophet Isaiah – ‘He took our infirmities on himself, and bore the burden of our diseases.’

¹⁸ Seeing a crowd around him, Jesus gave orders to go across.

¹⁹ A teacher of the Law came up to him, and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

²⁰ “Foxes have holes,” answered Jesus, “and wild birds their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

²¹ “Master,” said another, who was a disciple, “let me first go and bury my father.”

²² But Jesus answered, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.”

²³ Then he got into the boat, followed by his disciples.

²⁴ Suddenly so great a storm came up on the sea, that the waves broke right over the boat. But Jesus was asleep;

²⁵ and the disciples came and roused him. “Master,” they cried, “save us; we are lost!”

²⁶ “Why are you so timid?” he said. “You of little faith!” Then Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and a great calm followed.

²⁷ The men were amazed, and exclaimed, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”

²⁸ On getting to the other side – the region of the Gadarenes – Jesus met two men who were possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one was able to pass that way.

²⁹ Suddenly they shrieked out, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before our time?”

³⁰ A long way off, there was a herd of many pigs, feeding;

³¹ and the foul spirits began begging Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”

³² “Go,” he said. The spirits came out, and entered the pigs; and the whole herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and died in the water.

³³ At this the men who tended them ran away and went to the town, carrying the news of all that had occurred, and of what had happened to the possessed men.

³⁴ At the news the whole town went out to meet Jesus, and, when they saw him, they entreated him to go away from their region.