Matthew Chapter 12    

¹At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and his disciples were hungry and began to pick heads of grain and to eat them.
  ²But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
  ³But he said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and those with him were hungry,
  ⁴how he went into the house of God and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
  ⁵Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?
  ⁶But I say to you, that one greater than the Temple is here.
  ⁷But if you had known what this means, I want mercy, and not sacrifice,^a you would not have condemned the guiltless.
  ⁸For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
 

⁹And he departed from there and went into their synagogue,
  ¹⁰and look! A man with a shriveled hand! And in order to accuse him, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
  ¹¹And he said to them, “Who is there among you that if he has even one sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
  ¹²How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
  ¹³Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored whole, as the other.
  ¹⁴But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him as to how they could destroy him.
 

¹⁵But when Jesus realized it, he withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all.
  ¹⁶And he warned them not to make him known,
  ¹⁷with the result that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,
  ¹⁸Look! My servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
  ¹⁹He will not quarrel, nor cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
  ²⁰A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench, until he leads justice to victory.
  ²¹And the Gentiles will hope in his name.^b
 

²²Then was brought to him a man afflicted by a demon who was blind and mute. And he healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.
  ²³And all the crowd was amazed, and said, “This cannot be the Son of David, can it?”
  ²⁴But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”
  ²⁵And knowing their thoughts he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
  ²⁶And if the Adversary^c casts out the Adversary, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
  ²⁷And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
  ²⁸But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
 

²⁹“Or how is one able to enter the house of the strong man and carry off his property unless he first ties up the strong man? And then he can plunder his house.
  ³⁰Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.
 

³¹“Therefore I say to you, people will be forgiven for every sin and defaming word, but the defaming of the Spirit will not be forgiven.
  ³²And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is about to come.
 

³³“Either declare the tree good, and thus its fruit good, or declare the tree corrupt, and thus its fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit.
  ³⁴You offspring of vipers! How are you, being evil, able to speak good things? For the mouth speaks what overflows from the heart.
  ³⁵The good person out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
  ³⁶And I say to you, that every careless word that people speak, they will give account of it on the Day of Judgment.
  ³⁷For by your words you will be declared righteous, and by your words you will be condemned.”
 

³⁸Then some of the experts in the law and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
  ³⁹But he answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet,
  ⁴⁰for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish,^d so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
  ⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.
  ⁴²The queen of the south will rise up at the Judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.
 

⁴³“Now when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking a resting place, and does not find it.
  ⁴⁴Then it says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came out,’ and when it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
  ⁴⁵Then it goes and takes with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter in and live there, and the last state of that person becomes worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
 

⁴⁶While he was still speaking to the crowds, look, his mother and his brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.
  ⁴⁷[[And someone said to him, “Look! Your mother and your brothers stand outside, wanting to speak to you.”]]
  ⁴⁸He answered and said to the one telling him, “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?”
  ⁴⁹And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, “Look! My mother and my brothers!
  ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, that one is my brother, and sister, and mother.”