‏ Matthew 15

1Then some Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2"Why do your disciples keep transgressing the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before eating?" 3"And why do you also keep transgressing the command of God by your tradition?" he asked. 4"For God said, Honor your father and mother, and, Let him who reviles father or mother be put to death; 5but you say that whoever tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever of mine might have been of service to you is dedicated to God,’ 6is in no way bound to honor his father. Thus do you make void the word of God by your tradition! 7Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, saying. 8This is a people that honors me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. 9In vain do they worship me, While they teach doctrines that are the commands of men."

10Then Jesus called the people to him and said. 11"Listen, and pay attention. It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of it, that defiles the man." 12Then his disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were scandalized when they heard that saying?" He replied. 13"Any plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14"Let them alone. They are blind men leading the blind; and if one blind man leads another, both of them will fall into a ditch." 15Then Peter said to Jesus, "Explain the parable to us." 16He answered. "Are even you still without understanding? 17"Do you not know how all that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is afterward evacuated; 18while what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart - and that is what defiles a man. 19For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, perjury, slander. 20These are the things that defile a man; to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

21Jesus then left that place, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22Behold, there came to him a Canaanite woman of those parts. She wailed loudly, saying. "Pity me, Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is possessed of an evil spirit." 23But he answered her not a word. Then the disciples came up and kept beseeching him. "Send her away," they said, "because she wails after us." 24In reply he said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25But the woman came and knelt to him and said, "Lord, do help me." 26He answered, "It is not seemly to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs." 27"True, Lord," she said, "but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table." 28Then Jesus answered her. "O woman, great is your faith. It shall be for you even as you desire." And from that hour her daughter was healed.

29On leaving that place Jesus went along the shore of the Sea of Galilee; and after climbing a hill, took his seat there. 30Great crowds came to him, bringing the crippled, the blind, the maimed, the dumb, and many others. They laid them at his feet and he healed them; 31so that the crowd wondered when they saw the dumb speaking, the cripples walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel. 32But Jesus called his disciples to him and said. "My heart yearns over the crowd, for they have been with me now three days, and they have nothing to eat. I am not willing to send them away hungry, for fear they faint on the road." 33"In a lonely place like this," asked the disciple. "where can we get bread enough to satisfy such a crowd?" 34"How many loaves have you?" answered Jesus. They replied, "Seven, and a few small fish. 35So when he had summoned the crowd, and seated them upon the ground, 36he took the seven loaves and the fish, and gave thanks, then he broke them and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd. 37And all ate and were satisfied, and of the fragments that remained they gathered seven large basketfuls. 38And those who ate numbered four thousand, besides the women and children. 39When he had sent the crowds away, he got into the boat and came into the region of Magadan.