Bible Gateway passage: Luke 4:14-30 - New International Version (2025)

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee^(A) in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.^{(B) 15}He was teaching in their synagogues,^(C) and everyone praised him.

¹⁶He went to Nazareth,^(D) where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue,^(E) as was his custom. He stood up to read,^{(F) 17}and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,^(G)
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news^(H) to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^[a](I)

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.^(J) The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled^(K) in your hearing.”

²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.^(L)

²³Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown^(M) what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”^(N)

²⁴“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.^{(O) 25}I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.^{(P) 26}Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.^{(Q) 27}And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[b] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”^(R)

²⁸All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town,^(S) and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.^(T)

Footnotes

1. Luke 4:19 Isaiah 61:1,2 (see Septuagint); Isaiah 58:6
2. Luke 4:27 The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin.

Cross references

1. Luke 4:14 : Mt 4:12
2. Luke 4:14 : S Mt 9:26
3. Luke 4:15 : S Mt 4:23
4. Luke 4:16 : S Mt 2:23
5. Luke 4:16 : Mt 13:54
6. Luke 4:16 : S 1Ti 4:13
7. Luke 4:18 : S Jn 3:34
8. Luke 4:18 : Mk 16:15
9. Luke 4:19 : Lev 25:10; Isa 61:1, 2; Ps 102:20; 103:6; Isa 42:7; 49:8, 9; 58:6
10. Luke 4:20 : ver 17; S Mt 26:55
11. Luke 4:21 : S Mt 1:22
12. Luke 4:22 : Mt 13:54, 55; Jn 6:42; 7:15
13. Luke 4:23 : ver 16; S Mt 2:23
14. Luke 4:23 : Mk 1:21-28; 2:1-12
15. Luke 4:24 : Mt 13:57; Jn 4:44
16. Luke 4:25 : 1Ki 17:1; 18:1; Jas 5:17, 18; Rev 11:6
17. Luke 4:26 : 1Ki 17:8-16; S Mt 11:21
18. Luke 4:27 : 2Ki 5:1-14
19. Luke 4:29 : Nu 15:35; Ac 7:58; Heb 13:12
20. Luke 4:30 : Jn 8:59; 10:39