Mark 7

1The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered to him.

2And when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean hands—that is, unwashed hands.

3For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, holding the tradition of the elders.

4And when they come from the marketplace unless they wash, they do not eat—and there are many other things they received to keep: washings of cups, pots, bronze vessels, and tables.

5The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with defiled hands?"

6He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied well about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.' "

7But they worship me in vain, teaching the commandments of men as doctrines.

8You forsake the commandment of God and hold the tradition of men.

9And he said to them, "Well do you reject God's commandment, that you may keep your tradition."

10For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother"; and, "Whoever curses father or mother, let him suffer death."

11But you say, "If anyone says to his father or mother, 'Corban'—that is, a gift—whatever might benefit you from me."

12You no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother.

13You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you passed down, and you do many such similar things.

14Again he called the crowd to him and said to them, "Hear me, everyone, and understand."

15Nothing outside a man that enters him can defile him, but the things coming out from a man are what defile him.

16If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.

17When he entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable.

18And he said to them, “Are you so lacking understanding too? Do you not grasp that whatever enters a person from outside cannot defile him?”

19because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and out into the sewer, cleansing all foods.

20And he said, "What comes out from a person—that defiles the person."

21For from within, out of people's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders.

22adulteries, greediness, wickedness, deceit, wantonness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and folly.

23All these evil things come from inside and defile the person.

24From there he arose and departed into the borders of Tyre, and entering a house he wanted no one to know, but he could not escape notice.

25But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him, came, and fell prostrate at his feet.

26Now the woman was a Greek of Syro-Phoenician race, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

27But he said to her, “First let the children be satisfied, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”

28But she answered and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs.”

29And he said to her, "For this word, go. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

30And when she arrived home, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31Again he departed from the borders of Tyre, came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis.

32And they brought a deaf man with a speech impediment to him, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

33And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue.

34And looking up to heaven, he groaned and said to him, “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!”

35And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.

36He charged them not to tell anyone, but the more he charged them, the more abundantly they proclaimed it.

37They were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."