Luke 4:1-28

¹As Jesus left the Jordan River valley, the Holy Spirit was completely controlling him.

²For forty days the Spirit led him around in the desolate area. During that time Jesus was being tempted by the devil {the devil was tempting him}, and Jesus did not eat anything. When that time ended, he was very hungry.

³Then the devil said to Jesus, “Because you claim that you ◄ have a relationship with God as a son has with his father MET/are the man who is both God and man►, prove it by telling these stones to become bread so that you can eat them!”

⁴Jesus replied, “ No, I will not change stones into bread, because it is written { Moses wrote} in the Scriptures that eating food sustains people physically, but it does not sustain them spiritually. They also need food for their spirits.”

⁵Then the devil took him on top of a high mountain and showed him in an instant all the nations in the world.

⁶Then he said to Jesus, “I will give you the authority to rule all these areas and will make you famous. I can do this because God has permitted me to control these areas, and I can allow anyone I desire to rule them!

⁷So if you worship me, I will let you rule them all!”

⁸But Jesus replied, “ No, I will not worship you, because it is written { the Psalmist wrote} in the Scriptures, ‘It is the Lord, your God, whom you must worship, and you must serve only him!’ ”

⁹Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem. He set him on the highest part of the Temple and said to him, “Because you claim that you ◄ have a relationship with God as a son has with his father MET/are the man who is both God and man►, prove it by jumping down from here.

¹⁰You will not be hurt, because it is written {the Psalmist wrote} in the Scriptures, ‘God will command his angels to protect you (sg).

¹¹They will lift you up with their hands when you are falling, so that you will not get hurt. You will not even strike your foot on a stone.’ ”

¹²But Jesus replied, “ No, I will not do that, because it is written { Moses wrote} in the Scriptures: ‘Do not try to test the Lord your God to see if he will prevent something bad from happening to you when you do something foolish’.”

¹³Then, after the devil had finished trying to tempt Jesus in many ways, he left him. He wanted to try to tempt him later at an appropriate time.

¹⁴As the Spirit empowered him, Jesus returned to Galilee district. People throughout all that region heard about what he was doing.

¹⁵He taught people in their ◄synagogues/meeting places►. As a result, he was praised by everyone {everyone praised him}.

¹⁶Then Jesus went to Nazareth, the town where he grew up. ◄On the Sabbath/On the Jewish rest day► he went ◄to the synagogue/to the Jewish meeting place►, as he usually did. He stood up to indicate that he wanted to read Scriptures to them.

¹⁷A scroll containing the words that the prophet Isaiah had written was given to him { Someone gave to him a scroll containing the words that the prophet Isaiah had written}. He opened the scroll and found the place from which he wanted to read. He read these words:

¹⁸The Spirit ◄of the Lord/of God► is upon me. He has appointed MTY me to declare God's good news to the poor. He has sent me here to proclaim that God will deliver those whom Satan has captured, and he will enable me to enable those who are blind to see. He will enable me to free people who have been oppressed {whom others have oppressed}.

¹⁹And he sent me to declare that now is the time when ◄the Lord/God► will act favorably toward people.

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down to teach the people. Everyone in the synagogue was looking intently MTY at him.

²¹He said to them, “Today as you have been hearing MTY me speak, I am beginning to fulfill this Scripture passage.”

²²At first everyone there spoke well about him, and they were amazed at the charming words that he spoke. But then some of them said, “◄He is only Joseph's son!/Isn't he only Joseph's son?► RHQ So ◄ it is useless for us(exc) to listen to what he says!/why should we(exc) listen to what he says?► RHQ”

²³He said to them, “Surely some of you will quote to me the proverb that says, ‘Doctor, heal yourself!’ What you will mean is, ‘People told us that you did miracles in Capernaum town, but we(exc) do not know if those reports are true. So do miracles here in your own hometown, too!’ ”

²⁴Then he said, “It is certainly true that people do not accept the message of a prophet when he speaks in his hometown, just like you(pl) are not accepting my message now.

²⁵But think about this: There were many widows in Israel during the time when the prophet Elijah lived. During that time, because of there being no rain MTY for three years and six months, there was a great famine throughout the country.

²⁶But God did not send Elijah to help any of those Jewish widows. God sent him to Zarepath town near Sidon city, to help a non-Jewish widow.

²⁷There were also many Jewish lepers in Israel during the time when the prophet Elisha lived. But Elisha did not heal any of them. He healed only Naaman, a non-Jewish man from Syria.”

²⁸When all the people in the synagogue heard him say that, they were very angry, because they realized that he was inferring that he similarly would help non-Jewish people instead of helping Jews (OR, that they also were not worthy of receiving God's help).