Matthew 15

1Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem approached Jesus, saying,

2Why do your disciples transgress the elders' tradition? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.

3He answered them, “Why do you also break God’s commandment for your tradition?”

4For God said, "Honor your father and mother"; and, "Whoever curses father or mother, let him be put to death."

5But you say, "Whoever might say to his father or mother, 'Whatever you might be profited by me is a gift,'"

6He shall not honor his father, and you have invalidated God's word because of your tradition.

7You hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied well about you, saying,

8This people reverences me with their lips, but their heart stands far from me.

9But they worship me in vain, teaching men's commandments as doctrines.

10And calling the crowd to him, he said to them, "Hear and understand."

11What enters into the mouth does not defile the man, but what comes out of the mouth—that defiles the man.

12Then the disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the word?"

13But he answered, “Every plant my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.”

14Let them be. They are blind guides of the blind. If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.

15Peter answered him, "Explain this parable to us."

16But he said, "Are you still without understanding too?"

17Do you not understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the belly and is cast out into the latrine?

18But the things coming out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.

19For from the heart come wicked thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.

20These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man.

21And leaving there, Jesus withdrew into the districts of Tyre and Sidon.

22And look, a Canaanite woman from those borders came crying out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is terribly demon-possessed."

23But he made no reply to her, and his disciples came up and pleaded with him, saying, "Dismiss her, because she cries out behind us."

24But he answered, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

25But she came and worshiped him, saying, "Lord, help me."

26But he answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”

27But she said, "Yes, Lord, for even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

28Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

29And Jesus, leaving that place, came beside the Sea of Galilee, went up the mountain, and sat there.

30Large crowds came to him, bringing deaf, blind, lame, and maimed people along with many others; they laid them at his feet, and he healed them.

31So the crowd marveled, seeing the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing—and they glorified the God of Israel.

32Jesus called his disciples and said, "I have compassion on the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat; I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."

33And the disciples said to him, “Where could we get so many loaves in the wilderness to satisfy such a vast crowd?”

34And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven, and a few little fish."

35And he commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground.

36He took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks and broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.

37They all ate and were satisfied, and they took up seven full baskets of the leftover fragments.

38Those who ate were four thousand men, not counting women and children.

39And dismissing the crowds, he boarded the boat and came to the borders of Magadan.