Matthew 12:1-8

Working on the Sabbath

1 At that time Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry so they were picking heads of wheat and eating them.

2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law."

3 But he said to them, " Haven't you read what David did when he and those with him were hungry?

4 He went into God's house and broke the law by eating the bread of the presence, which only the priests were allowed to eat.

5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple treat the Sabbath as any other day and are still innocent?

6 But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.

7 If you had known what this means, I want mercy and not sacrifice, you wouldn't have condemned the innocent.

8 The Human One is Lord of the Sabbath."

Footnotes

• [a] Hos 6:6
• [b] Or Son of Man