He then took them with him to the village of Bethsaida, where they could be alone. ¹¹ But a lot of people found out about this and followed him. Jesus welcomed them. He spoke to them about God's kingdom and healed everyone who was sick.

¹² Late in the afternoon the twelve apostles came to Jesus and said, "Send the crowd to the villages and farms around here. They need to find a place to stay and something to eat. There is nothing in this place. It is like a desert!"

¹³ Jesus answered, "You give them something to eat."

But they replied, "We have only five small loaves of bread[d] and two fish. If we are going to feed all these people, we will have to go and buy food." ¹⁴ There were about five thousand men in the crowd.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Have the people sit in groups of fifty." ¹⁵ They did this, and all the people sat down. ¹⁶ Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and fish and handed them to his disciples to give to the people.

¹⁷ Everyone ate all they wanted. What was left over filled twelve baskets.