Mark 6:16-31

¹⁶Having heard what the people were saying, King Herod Antipas himself repeatedly said, “The man performing those miracles must be John! I commanded my soldiers to cut off his head, but he has come back to life again to get revenge for my killing him!”

¹⁷The reason King Herod concluded that John wanted revenge is as follows: Some time before this, Herod married Herodias, while she was still the wife of his younger brother, Philip.

¹⁸John kept telling Herod, “ God's law does not permit you to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive.” Then, because Herodias urged him to put John in prison, Herod himself sent soldiers to John. They seized John and put him in prison.

¹⁹But because Herodias wanted to get further revenge on John, she wanted someone to execute him. But she could not do that because while John was in prison, Herod kept John safe from her.

²⁰Herod did this because he respected/feared John, because he knew that he was a righteous and holy man. The king did not know what he should do, but he liked to listen to him.

²¹But Herodias was able to have someone execute John when they honored/celebrated the day when Herod was born. On that day, he invited the most important government officials, the most important army leaders, and the most important men in Galilee district in order that they might eat and celebrate with him.

²²While they were eating, Herodias' daughter came into the room and danced, and that pleased King Herod and his guests. So the king said to her, “Ask me for whatever you desire and I will give it to you!”

²³He said to her, “Whatever you ask, I will give it to you! I will give you up to half of what I own and rule, if you ask for it. May God punish me if I do not do what I have promised!”

²⁴The girl immediately left the room and went to her mother. She told her what the king had said, and asked her, “What shall I ask for?” Her mother replied, “ Ask the king to give you the head of John the Baptizer!”

²⁵The girl quickly entered the room again. She went to the king and she requested, “I want you to command someone to cut off the head of John the Baptizer and give it to me at once on a platter, so that my mother can know he is dead!”

²⁶The king became very distressed when he heard what she asked for, because he knew John was a very righteous man (OR, because he now knew that he should not have made that promise to her). But he could not refuse what she requested because he had promised that he would give her anything she asked for, and because his guests had heard him promise that.

²⁷So the king at once ordered the man who executes prisoners to go and cut off John's head and bring it to the girl. That man went to the prison and cut off John's head.

²⁸He put it on a platter, brought it back, and gave it to the girl. The girl took it to her mother.

²⁹After John's disciples heard what happened, they went to the prison and took John's body and then they buried it in a burial cave.

³⁰The twelve apostles returned to Jesus from the places to which they had gone. They reported to him what they had done and what they had taught to people.

³¹He said to them, “Come with me to a place where no people are living, in order that we can be alone and rest a little while!” He said this because many people were continually coming to them and going away again, with the result that Jesus and his disciples did not have time to eat or do anything else.