Now ¹  there were shepherds ²  nearby ³  living out in the field, keeping guard ⁴  over their flock at night.

So ¹  the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising ²  God for all they had heard and seen; everything was just as they had been told. ³ 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed ¹  me to proclaim good news ²  to the poor. ³  He has sent me ⁴  to proclaim release ⁵  to the captives and the regaining of sight ⁶  to the blind, to set free ⁷  those who are oppressed, ⁸ 

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, ¹  yet ²  none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ³ 

But Jesus ¹  said to them, “I must ²  proclaim the good news of the kingdom ³  of God to the other towns ⁴  too, for that is what I was sent ⁵  to do.” ⁶ 

Simon ¹  answered, ²  “Master, ³  we worked hard all night and caught nothing! But at your word ⁴  I will lower ⁵  the nets.”

Just then ¹  some men showed up, carrying a paralyzed man ²  on a stretcher. ³  They ⁴  were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus. ⁵ 

Immediately ¹  he stood up before them, picked ²  up the stretcher ³  he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying ⁴  God.

After ¹  this, Jesus ²  went out and saw a tax collector ³  named Levi ⁴  sitting at the tax booth. ⁵  “Follow me,” ⁶  he said to him.

To the person who strikes you on the cheek, ¹  offer the other as well, ²  and from the person who takes away your coat, ³  do not withhold your tunic ⁴  either. ⁵ 

“No one lights ¹  a lamp ²  and then covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand so that those who come in can see the light. ³ 

Wherever ¹  they do not receive you, ²  as you leave that town, ³  shake the dust off ⁴  your feet as a testimony against them.”

Then ¹  a man from the crowd cried out, ²  “Teacher, I beg you to look at ³  my son – he is my only child!

So ¹  if ²  Satan too is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? I ask you this because ³  you claim that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

But ¹  when a stronger man ²  attacks ³  and conquers him, he takes away the first man’s ⁴  armor on which the man relied ⁵  and divides up ⁶  his plunder. ⁷ 

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a hidden place ¹  or under a basket, ²  but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light.

But when they bring you before the synagogues, ¹  the ²  rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you should make your defense ³  or what you should say,

Jesus ¹  also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, ²  you say at once, ‘A rainstorm ³  is coming,’ and it does.

I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ¹ 

For ¹  a while he refused, but later on ²  he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ³