Matthew 15

¹Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²“Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” ³He answered them, “And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.’ ⁵But you say, ‘If any one tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.’ ⁶So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. ⁷You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

⁸‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

⁹in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ”

¹⁰And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: ¹¹not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” ¹²Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” ¹³He answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. ¹⁴Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” ¹⁵But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” ¹⁶And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on? ¹⁸But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰These are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

²¹And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²²And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.” ²³But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying after us.” ²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶And he answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

²⁹And Jesus went on from there and passed along the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain, and sat down there. ³⁰And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, ³¹so that the throng wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

³²Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” ³³And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get bread enough in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” ³⁴And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” ³⁵And commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, ³⁶he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ³⁷And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. ³⁸Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. ³⁹And sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magʹadan.