Mark 3:2 - Plain English Version

² Some of the Pharisee mob were there. They were strong for the Jewish law. They wanted to make trouble for Jesus, so they watched him there. They wanted to see if he was going to help the man with the dried up hand, and make it better on their Jewish rest day. If he did that, they were going to say, “He worked on the rest day, so he broke the law.”

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

² And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

² And [the Pharisees] kept watching Jesus [closely] to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might get a charge to bring against Him [formally].

American Standard Version (1901)

² And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

Common English Bible

² Wanting to bring charges against Jesus, they were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

Catholic Public Domain Version

² And they observed him, to see if he would cure on the Sabbaths, so that they might accuse him.

Mark 3:2 Cross References

Mark 3:3

Jesus knew they were thinking like that, and so he said to the man, “Come here and stand in front of everybody, so they can see you.”

Luke 14:1

One day, a man asked Jesus to come to his house to have dinner with him, and with some of his friends. He was a leader of the Pharisee mob, that were strong for the Jewish law. That day was a Saturday, and the Jewish law says that Saturday is their rest day. Nobody can work on the rest day. There was a sick man there at that Pharisee man’s house. His arms and legs were swollen. That Pharisee mob and the Jewish law men there, they watched Jesus to see if he was going to make that sick man better.

John 9:16

Some of that Pharisee mob said, “That man did not come from God. He does not respect God’s law about the rest day.” But some of them said, “But he does powerful things. A bad man can’t do things like that. So we reckon God sent him here.” And so that Pharisee mob did not agree with each other about Jesus.