Matthew 9

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

A paralytic forgiven and healed

¹ So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. ² And see, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Yeshua saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven you." ³ And see, some of the scribes said within themselves, "This man blasphemes!" ⁴ But Yeshua, seeing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? ⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (then He said to the paralytic), "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." ⁷ And he arose and departed to his house. ⁸ Now when the crowds saw it, they marveled and glorified Elohim, who had given such authority to men.

The call of Matthew

⁹ As Yeshua passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. ¹⁰ Now it happened, as He reclined at table in the house, that see, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined with Yeshua and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" ¹² When Yeshua heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: 'I desire lovingkindness and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" ¹⁵ And Yeshua said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. ¹⁷ Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

A ruler's daughter and a woman healed

¹⁸ While He was saying these things to them, see, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live." ¹⁹ So Yeshua arose and followed him, and so did His disciples. ²⁰ And see, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the fringe of His garment. ²¹ For she said to herself, "If only I may touch His garment, I will be made well." ²² But Yeshua turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And the woman was made well from that hour. ²³ When Yeshua came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, ²⁴ He said to them, "Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping." And they laughed Him to scorn. ²⁵ But when the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. ²⁶ And the report of this went out into all that land.

²⁷ When Yeshua departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" ²⁸ And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Yeshua said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." ²⁹ Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you." ³⁰ And their eyes were opened. And Yeshua sternly warned them, saying, "See that no one knows it." ³¹ But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that land.

³² As they went out, see, they brought to Him a man who was mute and demon-possessed. ³³ And when the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, "It was never seen like this in Israel!" ³⁴ But the Pharisees said, "He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons."

The harvest is plentiful

³⁵ Then Yeshua went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. ³⁶ But when He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

Notes

• 9:9 Matthew sat at a toll booth in Capernaum, probably collecting duties for Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee; tax collectors were widely despised as collaborators who often took more than was due. In the same story Mark and Luke call him Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27); he may have had two names, as Simon was also called Peter. Early tradition names him as the author of this Gospel (see the note on 1:1).
• 9:13 Yeshua quotes Hosea 6:6, "For I desire lovingkindness and not sacrifice." Matthew's Greek word eleos is the usual Greek rendering of the Hebrew chesed, the loyal love of the covenant, so the TRB keeps Hosea's wording. As in "to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22), the saying sets priorities; it does not abolish the Torah's offerings. "To repentance" is the reading of the Majority Text, which the TRB follows; many modern Bibles, following other manuscripts, leave it out here.
• 9:15 "The friends of the bridegroom" is literally "the sons of the bridal chamber," a Hebrew-style expression for the groom's companions, who rejoiced with him through the wedding days. The prophets pictured Yahweh as Israel's bridegroom (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20), and John the Baptist spoke of Yeshua the same way (John 3:29). Fasting itself is not set aside: "then they will fast."
• 9:20 "Fringe" is kraspedon, the word the Greek translation of Numbers 15:38 uses for the tassels (tsitsit) the Torah commanded on the corners of every Israelite's garment, so Yeshua wore them. Under the Torah a woman with a long flow of blood was unclean (Leviticus 15:25), and her uncleanness could pass to others by touch (15:19); yet here it is the woman who is made well. Some readers have linked her act to "healing in its wings" (Malachi 4:2), where the Hebrew kanaf also means the "corner" of a garment, though Matthew does not say so.
• 9:36 "Like sheep having no shepherd" recalls Moses' prayer for a leader, "so that the congregation of Yahweh may not be like sheep that have no shepherd" (Numbers 27:17), and Ezekiel's word against Israel's shepherds: "So they were scattered because there was no shepherd" (Ezekiel 34:5). "Distressed" (eskylmenoi) means harassed and troubled; some manuscripts read "weary." In the next chapter Yeshua sends the Twelve to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (10:6).

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