6After this, Jesus went across Lake Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias). ²Many people followed him because they saw the miracles he did to heal the sick. ³Jesus went up on a hill and sat down there with his followers. ⁴It was almost the time for the Jewish Passover Feast.

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?” ⁶(Jesus asked Philip this question to test him, because Jesus already knew what he planned to do.)

⁷Philip answered, “Someone would have to work almost a year to buy enough bread for each person to have only a little piece.”

⁸Another one of his followers, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ⁹“Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish, but that is not enough for so many people.”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Tell the people to sit down.” There was plenty of grass there, and about five thousand men sat down there. ¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves of bread, thanked God for them, and gave them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as the people wanted.

¹²When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his followers, “Gather the leftover pieces of fish and bread so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³So they gathered up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left from the five barley loaves.

¹⁴When the people saw this miracle that Jesus did, they said, “He must truly be the Prophet ⁿ who is coming into the world.”

¹⁵Jesus knew that the people planned to come and take him by force and make him their king, so he left and went into the hills alone.

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John 6:11: Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Footnotes

nProphet They probably meant the prophet that God told Moses he would send (Deuteronomy 18:15–19).