Matthew 4

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The testing in the wilderness

¹ Then Yeshua was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. ³ Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of Elohim, command that these stones become bread." ⁴ But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Elohim.'" ⁵ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and said to Him, "If You are the Son of Elohim, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command His angels concerning you,' and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that your foot does not stumble against a stone.'" ⁷ Yeshua said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not test the Lord your Elohim.'" ⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." ¹⁰ Then Yeshua said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your Elohim, and Him only you shall serve.'" ¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and see, angels came and ministered to Him.

Yeshua begins to preach in Galilee

¹² Now when Yeshua heard that John had been handed over, He withdrew into Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ¹⁵ "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations: ¹⁶ the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and on those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." ¹⁷ From that time Yeshua began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

The first disciples

¹⁸ And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." ²⁰ They immediately left their nets and followed Him. ²¹ Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, ²² and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

Teaching, preaching and healing

²³ And Yeshua went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. ²⁴ Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. ²⁵ And great crowds followed Him from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

Notes

• 4:2 Forty days and forty nights recall Moses on the mountain (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah on the way to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), and also Israel's forty years in the wilderness, where Yahweh humbled and tested His son (Deuteronomy 8:2-5). Where Israel stumbled, Yeshua answers each test with words from Deuteronomy 6-8.
• 4:4 Matthew quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in its Greek form, with "every word" where the Hebrew has "everything" and "Elohim" (theos) where the Hebrew has the name Yahweh. The sense is the same: Israel lived on manna because Yahweh spoke it, and Yeshua will not use His power apart from His Father's word.
• 4:10 In Hebrew, Deuteronomy 6:13 reads "You shall fear Yahweh your Elohim; you shall serve Him"; Matthew's Greek has "worship" and adds "only," following a Greek wording of the verse that draws out its meaning, for to serve Him alone is the heart of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). "Get behind Me" is the reading of the Majority Text, which the TRB follows; many modern Bibles, following other manuscripts, read "Go away, Satan!"
• 4:15 Isaiah promised light to Zebulun and Naphtali, the Galilean lands that Assyria had brought low first (2 Kings 15:29; Isaiah 9:1-2). Matthew's wording follows the Greek and differs a little from the Hebrew ("sat in darkness," "the region and shadow of death"). Capernaum lay on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the old tribal land of Naphtali.
• 4:17 Matthew usually writes "the kingdom of heaven" where Mark and Luke, in the same stories, write "the kingdom of Elohim" (compare Mark 1:14-15); they mean the same thing. Using "Heaven" as a reverent way of speaking of Elohim is already in Daniel: "after you come to know that Heaven rules" (Daniel 4:26). Yeshua's first call is the same as John's (3:2).
• 4:21 James (Iakōbos in Greek, Yaakov in Hebrew) bears the name of the patriarch Jacob; English Bibles have long called him "James," and the TRB keeps that familiar form.

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