Matthew 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Around that time, Jesus walked through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His students were hungry, so they started picking heads of grain and eating them.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your students are doing what's not allowed on the Sabbath!"

He said to them, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

He went into God's house and ate the bread that was set apart for God — bread that neither he nor his companions were allowed to eat, only the priests.

Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the Temple do work that would normally break the Sabbath — and they're not guilty?

But I'm telling you — something greater than the Temple is here.

If you really understood what this means — 'I want mercy, not sacrifice' — you wouldn't be condemning people who've done nothing wrong.

Because the Son of Man has authority over the Sabbath itself.

Moving on from there, he went into their synagogue.

A man was there with a withered hand. They asked Jesus, "Is it allowed to heal someone on the Sabbath?" — looking for a way to bring charges against him.

He said to them, "If any of you had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn't you grab it and pull it out?

How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So yes, it is allowed to do good on the Sabbath."

Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it was completely restored — as healthy as the other one.

But the Pharisees went out and plotted together about how to destroy him.

Jesus knew what they were planning, so he withdrew from that area. Large crowds followed him, and he healed all of them.

But he warned them not to make him widely known.

This fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

"Here is my servant, the one I've chosen, the one I love, who brings me great joy. I will put my Breath on him, and he will announce justice to the nations.

He won't argue or shout—no one will hear his voice in the streets.

He won't snap a damaged reed or snuff out a flickering candle — until he has brought justice to victory.

And in his name, the nations will place their hope."

Then people brought him a man controlled by a demon, who was blind and unable to speak. Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see.

All the crowds were amazed and said, "Could this actually be the Son of David?"

But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "This man only drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons."

Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself falls apart, and no city or household divided against itself can stand.

If Satan drives out Satan, he's fighting against himself. So how could his kingdom survive?

And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, then who gives your own people the power to drive them out? So they'll be your judges on this.

But if I'm driving out demons by the Breath of God, then God's kingdom has already arrived right in front of you.

"How can anyone break into a strong man's house and take his stuff unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can clean out the whole house.

"Anyone who isn't with me is against me, and anyone who isn't gathering with me is scattering.

So I'm telling you: every kind of failure and slander will be forgiven people, but speaking against the Breath of God will not be forgiven.

Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven. But anyone who speaks against the Breath of God will not be forgiven — not now, and not in the age to come.

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten. You can tell what a tree is by its fruit.

You nest of vipers! How can you say anything good when you yourselves are corrupt? Because the mouth speaks from whatever fills the heart.

A good person brings good things out of the good stored up inside them, and a corrupt person brings corrupt things out of the corruption stored up inside them.

But I'm telling you, on the day of judgment, people will have to answer for every careless word they've spoken.

Because your own words will either clear you or condemn you."

Then some of the experts in religious law and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."

He answered them, "A corrupt and unfaithful generation demands a sign, but the only sign it will get is the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment alongside this generation and condemn it, because they changed direction when Jonah spoke to them — and something greater than Jonah is here now.

The queen of the South will stand up at the judgment alongside this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon's wisdom — and something greater than Solomon is here now.

"When a corrupt spirit leaves a person, it wanders through dry, desolate places looking for rest but doesn't find any.

Then it says, 'I'll go back to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house empty, swept clean, and all put in order.

So it goes and brings seven other spirits more corrupt than itself, and they all move in and settle down there. And that person ends up worse off than before. That's exactly what will happen to this corrupt generation."

While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers showed up and stood outside, wanting to talk to him.

Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak with you."

But he replied to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?"

Then he gestured toward his students and said, "Here — these are my mother and my brothers.

Because anyone who does what my Father in heaven wants — that person is my brother, my sister, and my mother."