Matthew 12:1-8 ▼

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.”

3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests.

5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless?

6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”