Matthew 15:16-39

16“Do you still lack understanding?” he asked.

17“Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?

18But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person.

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

20These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”

21When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.

22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”

23Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”

24He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

25But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

26He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

27“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

28Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.

29Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there,

30and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them.

31So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.

32Jesus called his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”

33The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd?”

34“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them. “Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”

35After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground,

36he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

37They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces — seven large baskets full.

38Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children.

39After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.