Matthew 12:1–13

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

12:1–8pp—Mk 2:23–28; Lk 6:1–5 12:9–14pp—Mk 3:1–6; Lk 6:6–11

12At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain^x and eat them. ²When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”^y

³He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?^{z 4}He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.^{a 5}Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath^b and yet are innocent? ⁶I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.^{c 7}If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’^ad you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸For the Son of Man^e is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁹Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, ¹⁰and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus,^f they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”^g

¹¹He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?^{h 12}How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!ⁱ Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

¹³Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.