Open English Translation LUKE Chapter 8

8 After that, Yeshua started travelling around all the towns and villages—preaching and sharing the good message about God’s kingdom. His twelve trainees were with him 2 [ref]along with some women who had been healed from evil spirits and sicknesses: Maria from Magdala (that seven demons had come out of), 3 Yoanna (who’s Chusa’s wife and one of King Herod’s managers), Susanna, and many others, who used the group’s assets to look after their needs.

4 A large crowd gathered around Yeshua, including many who had travelled out from the city, and he told them this parable:

5 “One day a farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he spread the seeds, some of them fell along the path where they got trampled on, and the birds ate them. 6 Some of the seeds landed in a rocky area where they sprouted, but then they withered up because they didn’t have enough moisture. 7 Some of the seeds landed in a patch of thistles, and as the plants started to grow, they were choked out by the thistles. 8 Some of the seeds fell onto good soil, and then the plants grew up to produce a harvest of one hundred times as much.”

As he was saying this, he was also telling them, “Anyone who wants to hear, listen carefully.”

9 After this, his apprentices asked him, “What’s that parable all about?” 10 [ref]“You’re permitted to know the mysteries of God’s kingdom,” responded Yeshua, “but the others get parables so that when they look, they won’t see, and when they listen, they won’t understand.

11 “So this is what the parable means: the seeds are God’s message. 12 The seeds along the road are those who hear the message, but afterwards the devil comes along and snatches the message away from their hearts, so that they don’t believe or get saved. 13 The seeds among the rocks are those who happily accept the message but don’t put down any roots, so they believe for a short time, and then when temptations come, they pull back from God. 14 The seeds among the thistles are those who heard the message but get choked under worries and wealth and the good life, and so they never reach maturity. 15 But the seeds in the good soil are those good people with good hearts and after hearing the message, they follow it, and produce fruit from their endurance.

16 [ref]“No one lights a lamp and then puts a cover over it or puts it under a bed, but rather it’s placed on a lampstand so that everyone coming into the room can see the light.

17 [ref]“Similarly, nothing is hidden that won’t eventually become visible, and nothing is secret that won’t become known and exposed.

18 [ref]“So take care in what you listen to, because anyone who has now, will be given more, and anyone who doesn’t have, whatever they think they do have will be taken away from them.”

19 Then Yeshua’s mother and brothers arrived but they couldn’t get close to him because of the crowd. 20 “Your mother and brothers are standing outside,” someone told him, “and they want to see you.”

21 “My mother and my brothers,” Yeshua responded, “are anyone who’s listening to God’s message and who put it into practice.”

22 One day Yeshua and his apprentices got into a boat and he asked them to go across to the other side of Lake Galilee. So they set off 23 but once they were moving, Yeshua fell asleep. The a big storm descended onto the lake and the boat was being swamped by the waves and they were in danger of sinking. 24 The apprentices went and woke Yeshua, “Master, we’re going to drown!”

Now awake, he spoke sternly to the wind and the waves in the lake, and they stopped and it became calm. 25 “Where’s your faith?” he asked them.

From being terrified, they were now astounded and asked each other, “Who is this guy really? He can just tell the wind and the water what to do, and they obey him!”

26 Then they sailed across to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 As they got out of the boat, a demon-possessed man who had come out of the city had met him there. He didn’t live in a house, but lived in a cemetery, and he wasn’t wearing a lot. 28 He yelled out when he saw Yeshua and knelt down before him, and spoke loudly, “What business do you and I have together, Yeshua, son of the highest God? I beg you, don’t torture me.” 29 He said this because Yeshua had commanded the evil spirit to come out from the man. The demon had animated him many times and he’d needed to be put in chains and shackles, but he would break them off and the demon would drive him into the wilderness.

30 “What’s your name?” Yeshua asked.

“Thousands,” he answered, because many thousands of demons had entered him 31 and now they were pleading with Yeshua not to command them to go back to the bottomless pit.

32 They could see a herd of pigs being fed on a hill, and they requested Yeshua to let them go into the pigs, and he agreed to that. 33 So the demons rushed out of the man and into the pigs, and all the pigs then rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

34 When the workers feeding the pigs saw this happen, they took off and told everyone in the nearby town and round about. 35 So lots of people went there to the edge of the lake to see for themselves, and they found the man who had been demon-possessed now dressed and sitting at Yeshua’s feet with his full faculties, and they were frightened. 36 The people who had seen it happen told the new-comers how the demon-possessed man had been healed. 37 Then all those people from the Gerasenes region asked Yeshua to leave the area, because they were quite terrified, so he got back into the boat and they headed back to the other side.

38 The man who the demons had come out of had asked Yeshua if he could go with him, but Yeshua sent him away, saying, 39 “Go back to your house and tell them there about what God has done for you.”

So he went around the town telling everyone what Yeshua had done for him.

40 When Yeshua got back to the other side of the lake, the crowd there had been waiting for him and welcomed him. 41 Then, wow, a man named Yairus came and knelt down in front of Yeshua. He was the leader at the local meeting hall and he pleaded for Yeshua to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a twelve-year old, was dying.

Then while Yeshua was on his way squeezing through the crowd, 43 a woman who’d had internal bleeding for twelve years and who couldn’t be helped by any doctor, 44 worked her way up behind Yeshua and touched the edge of his robe. Immediately her bleeding stopped 45 and Yeshua stopped and said, “Who touched me?”

No one owned up, and Peter said, “Master, there’s people all around you and they’re pressing against you.”

46 “Someone touched me,” Yeshua responded, “because I felt power going out from me.” 47 When the woman now saw that she wouldn’t get away with it, came to Yeshua shaking, and knelt down at his feet. She told him in front of all the people why she had touched his clothes and how she’d been immediately healed. 48 “Lady,” Yeshua said, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

49 While he was still speaking, someone came from the meeting hall leader’s home and told him, “Don’t bother the teacher any further. Your daughter just passed away.”

50 But Yeshua heard this and turned to Yairus and said, “Don’t be afraid. Just believe and she’ll be healed.”

51 So they continued to the house, but Yeshua didn’t allow anyone inside other than Peter and Yohan and Yacob, along with the girl’s parents. 52 Everyone was weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Don’t cry. She isn’t dead—just asleep.”

53 But they ridiculed Yeshua because they knew that she had died. 54 He took hold of her hand, and called, “Girl, get up.” 55 Then her spirit returned and she got up immediately, and he told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he instructed them not to tell anyone what had happened.