Matthew 12:2

Legacy Standard Bible

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

King James Version (1611)
But when the Pharises saw it, they said vnto him, Behold, thy Disciples doe that which is not lawfull to doe vpon the Sabbath day.

King James Version
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

English Standard Version
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

New American Standard Bible
Now when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath!"

New Century Version
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, "Look! Your followers are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath day."

Amplified Bible
But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

Geneva Bible (1587)
And when the Pharises sawe it, they saide vnto him, Beholde, thy disciples doe that which is not lawfull to doe vpon the Sabbath.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath."

Berean Standard Bible
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

Contemporary English Version
Some Pharisees noticed this and said to Jesus, "Why are your disciples picking grain on the Sabbath? They are not supposed to do that!"

Complete Jewish Bible
On seeing this, the P'rushim said to him, "Look! Your talmidim are violating Shabbat!"

Darby Translation
But the Pharisees, seeing [it], said to him, Behold, thy disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on sabbath.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Pharisees saw this. They said to Jesus, "Look! Your followers are doing something that is against the law to do on the Sabbath day."

George Lamsa Translation
But when the Pharisees saw them, they said to him, Behold, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.

Good News Translation
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, "Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do this on the Sabbath!"

Lexham English Bible
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Behold, your disciples are doing what it is not permitted to do on the Sabbath!"

Literal Translation
But seeing, the Pharisees said to Him, Behold, your disciples are doing what it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.

American Standard Version
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath.

Bible in Basic English
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, See, your disciples do that which it is not right to do on the Sabbath.

Hebrew Names Version
But the Perushim, when they saw it, said to him, "Behold, your talmidim do what is not lawful to do on the Shabbat."

International Standard Version
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"

Etheridge Translation
But when the Pharishee saw them, they say to him, Look, thy disciples do something which is not lawful to be done on the sabbath.

Murdock Translation
And when the Pharisees saw them, they said to him: See; thy disciples are doing that which it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But when the Pharisees sawe it, they sayde vnto hym: Beholde, thy disciples do that which is not lawfull to do vpon the Sabbath day.

English Revised Version
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath.

World English Bible
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
But the Pharisees seeing it said to him, Behold thy disciples do what it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.

Weymouth's New Testament
But the Pharisees saw it and said to Him, "Look! your disciples are doing what the Law forbids them to do on the Sabbath."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Fariseis, seynge, seiden to hym, Lo! thi disciplis don that thing that is not leueful to hem to do in sabatis.

Update Bible Version
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, Look, your disciples do that which it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Webster's Bible Translation
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Behold, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.

New English Translation
But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath."

New King James Version
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"

New Living Translation
But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, "Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath."

New Life Bible
The proud religious law-keepers saw this. They said to Jesus, "See! Your followers do what the Law says not to do on the Day of Rest."

New Revised Standard
When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, the Pharisees, observing it, said unto him, Lo! thy disciples, are doing what is not allowed to do, on sabbath.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the Pharisees seeing them, said to him: Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days.

Revised Standard Version
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath."

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
When ye pharises sawe that they sayde vnto him: Beholde thy disciples do that which is not lawfull to do apon ye saboth daye.

Young's Literal Translation
and the Pharisees having seen, said to him, `Lo, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do on a sabbath.'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
When ye Pharises sawe that, they sayde vnto him: Beholde, thy disciples do that, which is not laufull to do vpon the Sabbath.

Mace New Testament (1729)
the Pharisees seeing that, said to him, see, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath-day.

Simplified Cowboy Version
When the religious know-it-alls saw this, they said to Jesus, "Look at that! Your cowboys are breakin' God's law and workin' on the day he told us to rest."

Contextual Overview

¹At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. ²But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." ³But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, ⁴how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? ⁵Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? ⁶But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." ⁹And departing from there, He went into their synagogue. ¹⁰And behold, a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Behold: Matthew 12:10, Exodus 20:9-11, Exodus 23:12, Exodus 31:15-17, Exodus 35:2, Numbers 15:32-36, Isaiah 58:13, Mark 3:2-5, Luke 6:6-11, Luke 13:10-17, Luke 23:56, John 5:9-11, John 5:16, John 5:17, John 7:21-24, John 9:14-16

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 23:25 - then thou mayest Luke 6:2 - Why John 5:10 - it is not

Cross-References

Genesis 12:3
And I will bless those who bless you,And the one who curses you I will curse.And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

Genesis 12:4
So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Genesis 12:6
And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.

Genesis 12:8
Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to Yahweh and called upon the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 12:9
And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.

Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Genesis 12:14
Now it happened when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

Genesis 12:16
Therefore he treated Abram well because of her; and sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels came into his possession.

Genesis 12:17
But Yahweh struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

Genesis 12:18
Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But when the Pharisees saw it,.... Who went along with him, or followed him, being employed to make observation on his words and actions,

they said unto him; Luke says, "unto them", the disciples: it seems, they took notice of this action both to Christ and his disciples, and first spoke of it to the one, and then to the other, or to both together:

behold thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day! they mention it with astonishment, and indignation. What they refer to, is not their walking on the sabbath day: this they might do, according to their canons, provided they did not exceed two thousand cubits, which were a sabbath day's journey f nor was it their passing through the corn fields; though, according to them g,

"it was not lawful for a man to visit his gardens, ושדותיו, "or his fields", on the sabbath day, to see what they want, or how the fruits grow; for such walking is to do his own pleasure.''

But this they knew was not the case of Christ, and his disciples, who were not proprietors of these fields: nor was it merely their plucking the ears of corn, and rubbing and eating them, which were not their own, but another man's; for this, according to the law, in

Deuteronomy 23:25 was lawful to be done: but what offended the Pharisees was, that it was done on a sabbath day, it being, as they interpret it, a servile work, and all one as reaping; though, in the law just mentioned, it is manifestly distinguished from it. Their rule is h

"he that reaps (on the sabbath day) ever so little, is guilty (of stoning), ותולש תולדה קוצר הוא, and "plucking of ears of corn is a derivative of reaping";''

and is all one as its primitive, and punishable with the same kind of death, if done presumptuously: so Philo the Jew observes i, that the rest of the sabbath not only reached to men, bond and free, and to beasts, but even to trees, and plants; and that ου ερνος ου

κλαδον, αλλ' ουδε πεταλον εφειται τεμειν, "it was not lawful to cut a plant, or branch, or so much as a leaf", on a sabbath day: and it may be what might make this offence of the disciples the more heinous was, that they plucked these ears, and ate them, and so broke their fast before morning prayer; for a man might not eat any thing on a sabbath day until morning prayers were ended in the synagogue, nor indeed on any other day; for they used not to eat bread till after they had offered the daily sacrifice, which was about the third hour of the day, or nine o'clock in the morning; nor did they eat till the fourth hour, or ten o'clock k.

f Ib. c. 27. sect. 1. g R. Moses Kotzensis Mitzvot Tora prec. neg. 65. h Maimon. Hilch. Sabbat, c. 8. sect. 3. & 7. 1. i De Vita Mosis, 1. 2. p. 657. k Vid. Targum in Eccl. x. 17. Maimon. Hilch. Tephilla, c. 6. sect. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Upon the Sabbath day - The Pharisees, doubtless desirous of finding fault with Christ, said that in plucking the grain on the “Sabbath day” they had violated the commandment. Moses had commanded the Hebrews to abstain from all servile work on the Sabbath, Exodus 20:10; Exodus 35:2-3; Numbers 15:32-36. On any other day this would have been clearly lawful, for it was permitted, Deuteronomy 23:25.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 12:2. Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do — The Jews were so superstitious, concerning the observance of the Sabbath, that in their wars with Antiochus Epiphanes, and the Romans, they thought it a crime even to attempt to defend themselves on the Sabbath: when their enemies observed this, they deterred their operations to that day. It was through this, that Pompey was enabled to take Jerusalem. Dion. Cass. lib. xxxvi.

Those who know not the spirit and design of the divine law are often superstitious to inhumanity, and indulgent to impiety. An intolerant and censorious spirit in religion is one of the greatest curses a man can well fall under.