Covenant Obligations

¹⁰ And the Lord responded, “Look, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done^[a] in the whole earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.^{(A) 11} Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites,^[b] and Jebusites. ¹² Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you.^{(B) 13} Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.^{(C) 14} Because the Lord is jealous^(D) for his reputation, you are never to bow down to another god.^[c] He is a jealous God.

¹⁵ “Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.^{(E) 16} Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.^(F)

A Gentile Mother’s Faith

²¹ When Jesus left there,^(A) he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.^{(B) 22} Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out,^[a] “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”^(C)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Healing Many People

²⁹ Moving on from there,^(H) Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee.^(I) He went up on a mountain and sat there, ³⁰ and 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. ³¹ So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing,^(J) and they gave glory to the God of Israel.