Jesus Calls His First Disciples
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and hearing the word of God, he was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret,
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and he saw two boats there beside the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them [and] were washing their nets.
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And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, [and] asked him to put out from the land a little. And he sat down [and] began to teach the crowds from the boat.
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And when he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
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And Simon answered [and] said, "Master, [although we] worked hard through the whole night, we caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets."
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And [when they] did this, they caught a very large number of fish, and their nets began to tear.
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And they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come [and] help them, and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.
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And [when he] saw [it], Simon Peter fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, Lord, because I am {a sinful man}!"
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For amazement had seized him and all those [who were] with him at the catch of fish that they had caught,
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and so also [were] James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were business partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid! From now on you will be catching people!"
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And [after they] brought [their] boats to the land, they left everything [and] followed him.