Matthew 8

¹ After he had come down from the mountain large crowds fol owed him.

² Suddenly a man with a virulent skin-disease came up and bowed low in front of him, saying, 'Lord, ifyou are wil ing, you can cleanse me.'

³ Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' And his skin-diseasewas cleansed at once.

⁴ Then Jesus said to him, 'Mind you tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make theoffering prescribed by Moses, as evidence to them.'

⁵ When he went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him.

⁶ 'Sir,' he said, 'my servant is lying at home paralysed and in great pain.'

⁷ Jesus said to him, 'I wil come myself and cure him.'

⁸ The centurion replied, 'Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and myservant will be cured.

⁹ For I am under authority myself and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes;to another, "Come here," and he comes; to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.'

¹⁰ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, 'In truth I tell you, in no onein Israel have I found faith as great as this.

¹¹ And I tel you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacobat the feast in the kingdom of Heaven;

¹² but the children of the kingdom wil be thrown out into the darkness outside, where there wil beweeping and grinding of teeth.'

¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, 'Go back, then; let this be done for you, as your faith demands.' Andthe servant was cured at that moment.

¹⁴ And going into Peter's house Jesus found Peter's mother-in-law in bed and feverish.

¹⁵ He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him.

¹⁶ That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He drove out the spirits with acommand and cured al who were sick.

¹⁷ This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He himself bore our sicknesses away andcarried our diseases.

¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd al about him he gave orders to leave for the other side.

¹⁹ One of the scribes then came up and said to him, 'Master, I wil fol ow you wherever you go.'

²⁰ Jesus said, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere tolay his head.'

²¹ Another man, one of the disciples, said to him, 'Lord, let me go and bury my father first.'

²² But Jesus said, 'Fol ow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.'

²³ Then he got into the boat fol owed by his disciples.

²⁴ Suddenly a storm broke over the lake, so violent that the boat was being swamped by the waves. Buthe was asleep.

²⁵ So they went to him and woke him saying, 'Save us, Lord, we are lost!'

²⁶ And he said to them, 'Why are you so frightened, you who have so little faith?' And then he stood upand rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

²⁷ They were astounded and said, 'Whatever kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obeyhim?'

²⁸ When he reached the territory of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards himout of the tombs -- they were so dangerously violent that nobody could use that path.

²⁹ Suddenly they shouted, 'What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture usbefore the time?'

³⁰ Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding,

³¹ and the devils pleaded with Jesus, 'If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.'

³² And he said to them, 'Go then,' and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herdcharged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water.

³³ The herdsmen ran off and made for the city, where they told the whole story, including what hadhappened to the demoniacs.

³⁴ Suddenly the whole city set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him toleave their neighbourhood.