24. So the girl went out and asked her mother, “What shall I ask for?”“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
25. The girl hurried back at once to the king and demanded, “I want you to give me here and now the head of John the Baptist on a dish!”
26. This made the king very sad, but he could not refuse her because of the vows he had made in front of all his guests.
27. So he sent off a guard at once with orders to bring John's head. The guard left, went to the prison, and cut John's head off;
28. then he brought it on a dish and gave it to the girl, who gave it to her mother.
29. When John's disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body, and buried it.
30. The apostles returned and met with Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught.
31. There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest for a while.”
32. So they started out in a boat by themselves for a lonely place.
33. Many people, however, saw them leave and knew at once who they were; so they went from all the towns and ran ahead by land and arrived at the place ahead of Jesus and his disciples.
34. When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.
35. When it was getting late, his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place.
36. Send the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat.”
37. “You yourselves give them something to eat,” Jesus answered.They asked, “Do you want us to go and spend 200 silver coins on bread in order to feed them?”
38. So Jesus asked them, “How much bread have you got? Go and see.”When they found out, they told him, “Five loaves and also two fish.”
39. Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass.
40. So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.