Montgomery - Matthew - 15

15:1  Then some Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying,

15:2  "Why do your disciples keep transgressing the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before eating?"

15:3  "And why do you also keep transgressing the command of God by your tradition?" he asked.

15:4  "For God said, Honor your father and mother, and, Let him who reviles father or mother be put to death;

15:5  but you say that whoever tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever of mine might have been of service to you is dedicated to God,’

15:6  is in no way bound to honor his father. Thus do you make void the word of God by your tradition!

15:7  Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, saying.

15:8  This is a people that honors me with their lips, But their heart is far from me.

15:9  In vain do they worship me, While they teach doctrines that are the commands of men."

15:10  Then Jesus called the people to him and said.

15:11  "Listen, and pay attention. It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of it, that defiles the man."

15:12  Then his disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were scandalized when they heard that saying?" He replied.

15:13  "Any plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

15:14  "Let them alone. They are blind men leading the blind; and if one blind man leads another, both of them will fall into a ditch."

15:15  Then Peter said to Jesus, "Explain the parable to us."

15:16  He answered. "Are even you still without understanding?

15:17  "Do you not know how all that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is afterward evacuated;

15:18  while what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart - and that is what defiles a man.

15:19  For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, perjury, slander.

15:20  These are the things that defile a man; to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

15:21  Jesus then left that place, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon.

15:22  Behold, there came to him a Canaanite woman of those parts. She wailed loudly, saying. "Pity me, Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is possessed of an evil spirit."

15:23  But he answered her not a word. Then the disciples came up and kept beseeching him. "Send her away," they said, "because she wails after us."

15:24  In reply he said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

15:25  But the woman came and knelt to him and said, "Lord, do help me."

15:26  He answered, "It is not seemly to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs."

15:27  "True, Lord," she said, "but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table."

15:28  Then Jesus answered her. "O woman, great is your faith. It shall be for you even as you desire." And from that hour her daughter was healed.

15:29  On leaving that place Jesus went along the shore of the Sea of Galilee; and after climbing a hill, took his seat there.

15:30  Great crowds came to him, bringing the crippled, the blind, the maimed, the dumb, and many others. They laid them at his feet and he healed them;

15:31  so that the crowd wondered when they saw the dumb speaking, the cripples walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

15:32  But Jesus called his disciples to him and said. "My heart yearns over the crowd, for they have been with me now three days, and they have nothing to eat. I am not willing to send them away hungry, for fear they faint on the road."

15:33  "In a lonely place like this," asked the disciple. "where can we get bread enough to satisfy such a crowd?"

15:34  "How many loaves have you?" answered Jesus. They replied, "Seven, and a few small fish.

15:35  So when he had summoned the crowd, and seated them upon the ground,

15:36  he took the seven loaves and the fish, and gave thanks, then he broke them and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd.

15:37  And all ate and were satisfied, and of the fragments that remained they gathered seven large basketfuls.

15:38  And those who ate numbered four thousand, besides the women and children.

15:39  When he had sent the crowds away, he got into the boat and came into the region of Magadan.