⁷ Calling the Twelve to him,^(A) he began to send them out two by two^(B) and gave them authority over impure spirits.^(C)

⁸ These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. ⁹ Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. ¹⁰ Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. ¹¹ And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet^(D) as a testimony against them.”

¹² They went out and preached that people should repent.^{(E) 13} They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil^(F) and healed them.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand^(A)(B)

³⁰ The apostles^(C) gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.^{(D) 31} Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat,^(E) he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

³² So they went away by themselves in a boat^(F) to a solitary place. ³³ But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.^(G) So he began teaching them many things.

³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”^(H)

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”