Jesus Calls the First Disciples

¹On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by uthe lake of Gennesaret, ²vand he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were wwashing their nets. ³Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And xhe sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, y“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵And Simon answered, “Master, zwe toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶And when they had done this, athey enclosed a large number of fish, and atheir nets were breaking. ⁷They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. bAnd they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, c“Depart from me, for dI am a sinful man, O Lord.” ⁹For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”1 ¹¹And when they had brought their boats to land, ethey left everything and followed him.

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