Mark 2:23-28

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

23 And it happened that he was going through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples began to make [their] way [while] plucking off the heads of grain.

24 And the Pharisees began to say to him, "Behold, why are they doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?"

25 And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he had need and he and those [who were] with him were hungry--

26 how he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the presentation, which it is not permitted to eat (except the priests) and also gave [it] to those who were with him?"

27 And he said to them, "The Sabbath was established for people, and not people for the Sabbath.

28 So then, the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

Footnotes

• [a] *Here "[while]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("picking") which is understood as temporal
• [b] The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to say")
• [c] *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation