Luke 5 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 One day, as Jesus was standing beside the Sea of Galilee, people crowded around him to hear the word of God.
1 Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.
2 Jesus noticed two boats lying on the shore, left there by fishermen who were washing their nets.
2 He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
3 Jesus got into a boat, the one that belonged to Simon, and asked him to push it out into the water, just offshore. Then Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the people from there.
3 He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4 After he'd finished speaking, he told Simon, “Go out into deeper water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 “Teacher, we worked hard all night, and didn't catch anything. But if you say so, I'll let down the nets,” Simon replied.
5 Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night and caught nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.”
6 Having done this, a large shoal of fish filled the nets full to breaking point.
6 When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking.
7 They waved to their partners in the other boat, asking them to come over and help. The others came over and together they filled both of the boats with fish. The boats were so full that they began to sink.
7 They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw what had happened, he dropped to his knees before Jesus. “Lord, please stay away from me, for I am a sinful man!” he exclaimed.
8 But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.”
9 For he and everybody with him were completely amazed by the catch of fish that they had landed.
9 For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught;
10 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners, felt the same way. “Don't be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you'll be fishing for people!”
10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”
11 So they dragged the boats onto the shore, left everything, and followed Jesus.
11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.
12 Once when Jesus was visiting one of the towns, he met a man there who had a very bad case of leprosy. The man fell with his face to the ground and begged Jesus, “Please Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.”
12 While he was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man full of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy disappeared.
13 He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
14 “Say nothing to anyone,” Jesus instructed him. “Go and show yourself to the priest and make the ceremonial offerings as required by the law of Moses as proof that you've been healed.”
14 He commanded him to tell no one, “But go your way and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing according to what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”
15 Yet the news about Jesus spread more and more. Large crowds came to hear Jesus and to be healed from their diseases.
15 But the report concerning him spread much more, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
16 But Jesus often used to retreat to quiet places and pray.
16 But he withdrew himself into the desert and prayed.
17 One day when Jesus was teaching, the Pharisees and religious teachers who had come from all over Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem were sitting there. The power of the Lord to heal was with him so he could heal.
17 On one of those days, he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them.
18 Some men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They tried to take him in and lay him in front of Jesus.
18 Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before Jesus.
19 But they couldn't find any way through the crowd, so they went up on the roof and made a hole in the roof tiles. Then they lowered the man down on the mat, right into the crowd in front of Jesus.
19 Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the middle before Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw the trust they had in him, he said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven.”
20 Seeing their faith, he said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
21 The religious teachers and the Pharisees began to argue with that. “Who is this who's speaking blasphemies?” they asked. “Who can forgive sins? Only God can do that!”
21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”
22 Jesus knew what they were arguing about, so he asked them, “Why are you thinking to question this?
22 But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, answered them, “Why are you reasoning so in your hearts?
23 What is easier? To say your sins are forgiven, or to say get up and walk?
23 Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?
24 However, I will prove to you that the Son of man has the authority here on earth to forgive sins.” Then he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you: Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, arise, take up your cot, and go to your house.”
25 Immediately the man stood up in front of them. He picked up the mat he'd been lying on, and went home, praising God as he went.
25 Immediately he rose up before them, and took up that which he was laying on, and departed to his house, glorifying God.
26 Everyone was completely astonished at what had happened, and in great awe they praised God, saying, “What we saw today was amazing!”
26 Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”
27 Later, as Jesus was leaving the town, he saw a tax collector called Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him.
27 After these things he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, “Follow me!”
28 Levi stood up, left everything, and followed Jesus.
28 He left everything, and rose up and followed him.
29 Levi organized a large banquet at his home in Jesus' honor. Many tax collectors and others were in the crowd that sat down to eat with them. But the Pharisees and the religious teachers complained to Jesus' disciples, asking,
29 Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.
30 “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
30 Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
31 “Healthy people don't need a doctor—but sick people do,” Jesus replied.
31 Jesus answered them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
32 “I didn't come to call those who are living right to repentance—I came to call sinners.”
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
33 “Well, John's disciples often fast and pray, and the Pharisees' disciples do so as well. But your disciples don't—they go on eating and drinking,” they told him.
33 They said to him, “Why do John’s disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?”
34 “Should the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus asked.
34 He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 “No—but the time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they can fast.”
35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days.”
36 Then he gave them an illustration: “You don't tear out a patch from new clothes to mend old clothes. Otherwise you'd ruin new clothes, and the patch from the new wouldn't match the old.
36 He also told a parable to them. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old.
37 You don't put new wine into old wineskins, because if you did the new wine would burst the wineskins. Then both wine and wineskins would be wasted.
37 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed.
38 You put new wine in new wineskins.
38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
39 And nobody after drinking old wine wants new wine, for they say, ‘the old tastes good.’”
39 No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
Cross references (39)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Mark 1:16–20; Matthew 4:18–22; Mark 3:9; Matthew 14:34; Mark 6:53
- 2 Mark 1:19; Matthew 4:21
- 3 Matthew 4:18; Matthew 13:1–2; John 1:41–42; Mark 4:1–2; John 8:2
- 4 John 21:6; Matthew 17:27
- 5 John 2:5; John 15:14; Luke 6:46–48; 2 Kings 5:10–14; Ezekiel 37:4–7
- 6 John 21:6–11; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Ecclesiastes 11:6; 2 Kings 4:3–7; Galatians 6:9
- 7 Galatians 6:2; Philippians 4:3; Acts 11:25; Romans 16:2–4; Exodus 23:5
- 8 Isaiah 6:5; Revelation 1:17; Job 42:5–6; Job 40:4; Judges 13:22
- 9 Psalm 8:8; Mark 9:6; Luke 4:32; Psalm 8:6; Luke 4:36
- 10 Matthew 4:19; Matthew 13:47; Ezekiel 47:9–10; Mark 1:17; Luke 5:7
- 11 Matthew 4:20; Luke 18:28–30; Matthew 19:27; Mark 10:21; Luke 5:28
- 12 Psalm 50:15; Matthew 8:2–4; Luke 17:16; Matthew 9:28; Mark 1:40–45
- 13 Matthew 9:29–30; John 4:50–53; 2 Kings 5:14; Ezekiel 36:29; Ezekiel 36:25–27
- 14 Leviticus 14:2–32; Luke 17:14; Matthew 8:4; Mark 1:44; Leviticus 13:2
- 15 Matthew 15:30–31; Luke 12:1; Matthew 4:23–25; Matthew 9:26; Mark 1:45–2:2
- 16 Mark 1:35–36; Luke 6:12; Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46; John 6:15
- 17 Luke 6:19; Luke 8:46; Acts 19:11; Matthew 11:5; Mark 5:30
- 18 Matthew 9:2–8; Mark 2:3–12; John 5:5–6; Acts 9:33
- 19 Mark 2:4; Matthew 10:27; Matthew 24:17; Deuteronomy 22:8; 2 Samuel 11:2
- 20 Acts 14:9; Matthew 9:2; Colossians 3:13; James 2:18; Luke 7:48
- 21 Isaiah 43:25; Mark 2:6–7; Acts 6:11–13; Luke 7:49; John 10:33
- 22 Matthew 9:4; Acts 5:3; Luke 24:38; Matthew 12:25; Mark 8:17
- 23 Mark 2:9; Matthew 9:5
- 24 Isaiah 53:11; Acts 9:40; Acts 14:10; Revelation 1:13; Acts 9:34
- 25 Psalm 107:20–22; Psalm 103:1–3; John 9:24; Psalm 33:9; Psalm 50:23
- 26 Matthew 9:8; Jeremiah 33:9; Acts 4:21; Matthew 12:23; Mark 2:12
- 27 Mark 2:13–22; Matthew 9:9–17; Mark 3:18; Matthew 10:3; John 1:43
- 28 Luke 5:11; 1 Kings 19:19–21; Matthew 19:22–27; Luke 9:59–62
- 29 Mark 2:15; 1 Corinthians 10:27; Luke 15:1; Matthew 9:10; John 12:2
- 30 Acts 23:9; Luke 15:1–2; Matthew 21:28–32; Luke 7:29–30; Luke 19:7
- 31 Mark 2:17; Matthew 9:12–13; Jeremiah 8:22
- 32 Luke 19:10; Luke 15:10; 1 Timothy 1:15–16; Luke 15:7; Acts 3:19
- 33 Matthew 9:14–17; Mark 2:18–22; John 3:25; Romans 10:2–3; Luke 18:12
- 34 John 3:29; Matthew 25:1–10; Revelation 19:7–9; Song of Songs 5:8; Song of Songs 2:6–7
- 35 Acts 14:23; Luke 17:22; John 16:4–7; Acts 3:21; Isaiah 22:12
- 36 Matthew 9:16–17; Mark 2:21–22; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:11
- 37 Psalm 119:83; Joshua 9:13; Joshua 9:4
- 38 Hebrews 8:8–13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ezekiel 36:26; Revelation 21:5; Galatians 5:1–6
- 39 Hebrews 11:39; Jeremiah 6:16; Romans 4:11–12; Mark 7:7–13; Hebrews 11:1–2
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But that the Lord came as the physician of the sick, He does Himself declare saying, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." How then shall the sick be strengthened, or how shall sinners come to repentance?
There the multitude of fishes caught was so great, that the two vessels were filled and began to sink, that is, were weighed down to the point of sinking; for they did not actually sink, but were in extreme jeopardy.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
So Peter too said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man;" because of this he became a foundation of the Church.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… Father at one time the Founder of the world, and at another Him who is above this one, as He does Himself declare: "No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old one, nor do they put new wine into old bottles." Let these men, therefore, either have nothing whatever to do with the prophets, as with …
Let me, as far as I am able, do that which was praised in those who opened the roof, and let down the sick of the palsy before Christ; that He might say unto him, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." For it was so that He made the inner man whole of his palsy, by …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)