Matthew 8

Chapter 8

¹When ¹Jesus came down from the mountain, ²large crowds followed Him.

²And ^aa leper came to Him and ^1bbowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

³Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his ^aleprosy was cleansed.

⁴And Jesus said to him, “^aSee that you tell no one; but ^bgo, ^cshow yourself to the priest and present the ¹offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

⁵And ^awhen ¹Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him,

⁶and saying, “¹Lord, my ²servant is ³lying ^aparalyzed at home, fearfully tormented.”

⁷Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

⁸But the centurion said, “¹Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just ²say the word, and my ³servant will be healed.

⁹“For I also am a man under ^aauthority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

¹⁰Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith ¹with anyone in Israel.

¹¹“I say to you that many ^awill come from east and west, and ¹recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;

¹²but ^athe sons of the kingdom will be cast out into ^bthe outer darkness; in that place ^cthere will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; ¹it shall be done for you ^aas you have believed.” And the ²servant was healed that very ³moment.

Peter’s Mother-in-law and Many Others Healed

^14aWhen Jesus came into Peter’s ¹home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever.

¹⁵He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and ¹waited on Him.

¹⁶When evening came, they brought to Him many ^awho were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and ^bhealed all who were ill.

¹⁷This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “^aHe Himself took our infirmities and ¹carried away our diseases.”

Discipleship Tested

¹⁸Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, ^aHe gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea.

^19aThen a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

²⁰Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the ¹air have ²nests, but ^athe Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

²¹Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus said to him, “^aFollow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”

^23aWhen He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.

²⁴And behold, there arose ¹a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.

²⁵And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “^aSave us, Lord; we are perishing!”

²⁶He said to them, “Why are you ¹afraid, ^ayou men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and ²it became perfectly calm.

²⁷The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Jesus Casts Out Demons

^28aWhen He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were ^bdemon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.

²⁹And they cried out, saying, “^1aWhat business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before ²the time?”

³⁰Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them.

³¹The demons began to entreat Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

³²And He said to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.

³³The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, ¹including what had happened to the ^ademoniacs.

³⁴And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, ^athey implored Him to leave their region.