³¹ Soon after this Jesus left the region of Tyre, and passed through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of Decapolis [the ten Hellenistic cities]. ³² They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him. ³³ Jesus, taking him aside by himself, away from the crowd, put His fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting, He touched the man’s tongue [with the saliva]; ³⁴ and looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” which [in Aramaic] means, “^[a]Be opened and released!” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he began speaking plainly. ³⁶ Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. ³⁷ They were thoroughly astounded and completely overwhelmed, saying, “He has done everything well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”