So many were the people coming and going and those who were looking for Jesus and seeking his power to cure their diseases, that Jesus and his disciples could scarcely find a chance to eat. The crowds were constantly pressing upon them. He said to his disciples: "Come, let us take the boat and go across the lake to some quiet place, away from the crowds, and there rest for a time." They went into the boat and started to row over the lake. But the people saw them going and many tried to follow them. Those who had boats sailed in them after the course in which they saw the boat with Jesus and his disciples. And the others, a great multitude, walked and ran around the head of the lake, waded across the river Jordan where it enters the Sea of Galilee, still keeping Jesus' boat in sight, and were at the beach to meet Jesus when he landed near the town of Bethsaida, which was on the northeastern shore. Here Jesus was safe, for Bethsaida was outside the rule of King Herod and in the land governed by Herod's brother Philip. When Jesus stepped out of his boat on the shore near Bethsaida, there he found a great throng of people, more than five thousand men, besides some women and children. When Jesus saw how eager they were and how glad to meet him, his heart of love and pity went out toward them. He cured some sick people that they had brought and he spoke to them about the kingdom of God. The day began to draw to its close and the sun was almost sinking below the hills of Galilee, when the disciples said to Jesus: "It is getting late and will soon be night. These crowds of people came so suddenly that they have brought with them nothing to eat. Send them away, so that they may go to the city of Bethsaida and the villages around and buy food and find places to stay through the night. We are here, you see, in a desert place, where there is neither food nor lodging for them." But Jesus said to his disciples, "There is no need for them to go away; you give them something to eat." They said to him, "Shall we go into the town and buy thirty dollars' worth of bread, so that each one of them may have a little?" Jesus turned to Philip, one of his disciples, and asked him, "Philip, where shall we find bread that all these people may eat?" Jesus said this to try Philip's faith, for he himself knew already what he would do. Philip looked over the crowd gathered upon the level ground, and he answered, "Thirty dollars' worth of bread would not be enough to give to each one even a little piece." Jesus said to his disciples, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." Just then another of the disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, came up to Jesus and said, "There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two little fishes; but what use would they be among so many people?" Jesus said, "Bring them to me."