9. “There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But they will certainly not be enough for all these people.”
10. “Make the people sit down,” Jesus told them. (There was a lot of grass there.) So all the people sat down; there were about 5,000 men.
11. Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted.
12. When they were all full, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces left over; let us not waste any.”
13. So they gathered them all up and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left over from the five barley loaves which the people had eaten.
14. Seeing this miracle that Jesus had performed, the people there said, “Surely this is the Prophet who was to come into the world!”
15. Jesus knew that they were about to come and seize him in order to make him king by force; so he went off again to the hills by himself.
16. When evening came, Jesus' disciples went down to the lake,
17. got into a boat, and went back across the lake towards Capernaum. Night came on, and Jesus still had not come to them.
18. By then a strong wind was blowing and stirring up the water.
19. The disciples had rowed about five or six kilometres when they saw Jesus walking on the water, coming near the boat, and they were terrified.
20. “Don't be afraid,” Jesus told them, “it is I!”
21. Then they willingly took him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached land at the place they were heading for.
22. Next day the crowd which had stayed on the other side of the lake realized that there had been only one boat there. They knew that Jesus had not gone in it with his disciples, but that they had left without him.
23. Other boats, which were from Tiberias, came to shore near the place where the crowd had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
24. When the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they got into those boats and went to Capernaum, looking for him.
25. When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Teacher, when did you get here?”
26. Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles.
27. Do not work for food that goes bad; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.”