1 Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their food."
3 He replied, "And why do you transgress the command of God with your traditions? 4 God enjoined, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death.
5 But you say, whoever tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service but it is dedicated to God,' 6 need not honour his father or mother. So you have repealed the law of God to suit your own tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah made a grand prophecy about you when he said,
8 This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: 9 vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts."
10 Then he called the crowd and said to them, "Listen, understand this: 11 it is not what enters a man's mouth that defiles him, what defiles a man is what comes out of his mouth."
12 Then the disciples came up and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees have taken offence at what they hear you say?"
13 He replied, "Any plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind, and if one blind man leads another, both of them will fall into a pit."
15 Peter answered, "Explain this parable to us at anyrate."
16 He said, "And are you totally ignorant? 17 Do you not see how all that enters the mouth passes into the belly and is then thrown out into the drain, 18 while what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart ??and that is what defiles a man. 19 For out of the heart come evil designs, murder, adultery, sexual vice, stealing, false witness, and slander. 20 That is what defiles a man; a man is not defiled by eating with hands unwashed!"
21 Going away from there Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And a woman of Canaan came out of these parts and wailed, "Have pity on me, Lord, O Son of David! My daughter is cruelly possessed by a daemon."
23 But he made no answer to her. Then his disciples came up and pressed him, saying, "Send her away, she is wailing behind us."
24 He replied, "It was only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that I was sent."
25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, do help me."
26 He replied, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 "No, sir," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."
28 At that Jesus replied, "O woman, you have great faith; your prayer is granted as you wish." And from that hour her daughter was cured.
29 Then Jesus removed from that country and went along the sea of Galilee; he went up the hillside and sat there. 30 And large crowds came to him bringing the lame, and the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others; they laid them at his feet, and he healed them. 31 This made the crowd wonder, to see dumb people speaking, the lame walking, and the blind seeing.
32 Then Jesus called his disciples and said, "I am sorry for the crowd; they have been three days with me now, and they have nothing to eat. I will not send them away starving, in case they faint on the road."
33 The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get loaves enough in a desert to satisfy such a crowd?"
34 Jesus said to them, "How many loaves have you got?" They said, "Seven, and some little fish."
35 So he ordered the crowd to recline on the ground. 36 He took the seven loaves and the fish and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds. 37 So the people all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over and filled seven large baskets with them. 38 The men who ate numbered four thousand, apart from the children and the women. 39 Then he sent the crowd away, got into the boat and went to the territory of Magadan.