25. So right then the girl went back in to the king. She said to him, “Please give me the head of John the Baptizer. Bring it to me now on a plate.”
26. King Herod was very sad, but he didn’t want to break the promise he had made to her in front of his guests.
27. So he sent a soldier to cut off John’s head and bring it to him. The soldier went and cut off John’s head in the prison.
28. He brought the head back on a plate and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
29. John’s followers heard about what happened, so they came and got John’s body and put it in a tomb.
30. The apostles Jesus had sent out came back to him. They gathered around him and told him about all they had done and taught.
31. Jesus and his followers were in a very busy place. There were so many people that he and his followers did not even have time to eat. He said to them, “Come with me. We will go to a quiet place to be alone. There we will get some rest.”
32. So Jesus and his followers went away alone. They went in a boat to a place where no one lived.
33. But many people saw them leave and knew who they were. So people from every town ran to the place where they were going and got there before Jesus.
34. As Jesus stepped out of the boat, he saw a large crowd waiting. He felt sorry for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd to care for them. So he taught the people many things.
35. It was now very late in the day. Jesus’ followers came to him and said, “No one lives around here, and it is already very late.
36. So send the people away. They need to go to the farms and towns around here to buy some food to eat.”
37. But Jesus answered, “You give them some food to eat.” They said to Jesus, “We can’t buy enough bread to feed all these people. We would all have to work a month to earn enough to buy that much bread!”
38. Jesus asked them, “How many loaves of bread do you have now? Go and see.” They counted their loaves of bread. They came to Jesus and said, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”
39. Then Jesus said to them, “Tell everyone to sit in groups on the green grass.”
40. So all the people sat in groups. There were about 50 or 100 people in each group.