Matthew 15:16-39

16Jesus replied, ‘I am surprised that you still do not understand what I am saying.

17You should understand that food first goes into people's mouths. Then it goes into their stomach, and then it passes out of their body.

18The words that people speak come from their thoughts. It is what comes out of their mouths that makes them unclean.

19Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result, they do wrong things. They murder people. They have sex with another man's wife. They have sex in other wrong ways. They rob people. They tell lies about other people. They insult people.

20It is these bad things that make people unclean. But if people eat food when they have not washed their hands in the right way, that will not make them unclean.’

21Then, Jesus left that place. He went away to some places near to the cities called Tyre and Sidon.

22A woman was living in this part of the country. She was one of the Canaanite people. She came to see Jesus. She was shouting with a loud voice, ‘Son of David, help me, sir! A bad spirit is living inside my daughter. It is giving her much pain.’

23Jesus did not say anything to the woman. So his disciples came to him. They said, ‘Please, send this woman away. She is following us and she is making a lot of noise.’

24Jesus replied to his disciples, ‘God has sent me to help only the people of Israel. They are like sheep that have lost their way.’

25Then the woman came to Jesus and she went down on her knees in front of him. ‘Sir, please help me,’ she said.

26Jesus did answer the woman this time. He said, ‘It is not right to take food from the children and then throw it to the dogs.’

27The woman replied to Jesus. ‘Yes sir, that is true. But even the dogs eat the small pieces of food that fall from their master's table.’

28Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, you show clearly that you believe in God. God will do what you have asked.’ At that moment the woman's daughter became well again.

29Jesus travelled on from that place and he walked along the shore of Lake Galilee. He climbed up a hill and he sat down there.

30Large crowds of people came to him and they brought sick people with them. Some of these sick people could not walk very well, and some of them were blind. Some of them could not use their arms or their legs. Some of them could not speak. There were many other sick people who had different illnesses. Their friends put the sick people in front of Jesus. And Jesus caused them all to become well again.

31When the large crowd saw all this, they were very surprised. People who could not speak could now speak again. People who could not use their arms or their legs were now well again. Those people who could not walk very well could now walk again. Blind people could now see again. All the people praised God, and they said, ‘God of Israel, you are great.’

32Then Jesus told his disciples to come to him. ‘I feel sorry for this crowd,’ he said to them. ‘They have been here with me now for three days. They do not have any food. I do not want to send them away while they are hungry. They might fall down during their journey because they are weak.’

33The disciples said to Jesus, ‘This place is a long way from any houses. We cannot get enough bread here to feed so many people.’

34Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves of bread do you have?’ They replied, ‘We have seven loaves and a few small fish.’

35Jesus told the crowd that they should sit down on the ground.

36Then he took the seven loaves and the fish in his hands and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the bread and the fish into pieces and he gave the food to his disciples. The disciples gave the food to the people.

37All the people ate and they all had enough food. After the people had eaten, there were still lots of small pieces of food. Jesus' disciples filled seven baskets with these pieces.

38There were 4,000 men who ate the bread and fish. There were also women and children who ate.

39Then Jesus sent the crowd of people away. After that, he got into the boat and sailed to the part of the country near Magadan.