Matthew 15
1 Then Pharisees and teachers of the Law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked:
2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
3 He replied, “And why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition?
4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “What you might have received from me is an offering,”
6 will not honor his father or mother.’ And so you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition.
7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied well about you when he said:
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
9 they worship me in vain, teaching human rules as doctrines.’”
10 Then he called the crowd over and said to them, “Listen and understand.
11 It is not what enters the mouth that makes a person impure; what comes out of the mouth is what makes a person impure.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.
14 Leave them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind person guides another blind person, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 He said, “Are you also still without understanding?
17 Don’t you see that everything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?
18 But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and that is what makes a person impure.
19 For evil thoughts come from the heart: murders, adulteries, sexual immorality, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
20 These are the things that make a person impure; but eating without washing one’s hands does not make a person impure.”
21 Jesus left there and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is terribly tormented by a demon.”
23 But he did not answer her a word. His disciples came and urged him, “Send her away, because she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me!”
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
27 She said, “Yes, Lord; but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their owners’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
29 Jesus left there, went along the Sea of Galilee, and went up the mountain and sat down there.
30 Large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the disabled, the blind, the mute, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
31 So the crowd was amazed to see the mute speaking, the disabled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
32 Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on this crowd, because they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint on the way.”
33 The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this deserted place to satisfy such a large crowd?”
34 Jesus asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
35 Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground.
36 He took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and handed them to the disciples; and the disciples handed them to the crowds.
37 Everyone ate and was satisfied, and they gathered seven baskets full of the leftover pieces.
38 Those who ate numbered four thousand men, not counting women and children.
39 After sending the crowds away, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app