¹⁴ Jesus called the people to him again. He said, “Everyone should listen to me and understand what I am saying. ¹⁵ There is nothing people can put in their mouth that will make them wrong.^[a] People are made wrong by what comes from inside them.” ^16 [b]

¹⁷ Then Jesus left the people and went into the house. The followers asked Jesus about what he had told the people. ¹⁸ He said, “Do you still have trouble understanding? Surely you know that nothing that enters the mouth from the outside can make people unacceptable to God. ¹⁹ Food does not go into a person’s mind. It goes into the stomach. Then it goes out of the body.” (When Jesus said this, he meant there is no food that is wrong for people to eat.)

²⁰ And Jesus said, “The things that make people wrong are the things that come from the inside. ²¹ All these bad things begin inside a person, in the mind: bad thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, ²² adultery, greed, doing bad things to people, lying, doing things that are morally wrong, jealousy, insulting people, proud talking, and foolish living. ²³ These evil things come from inside a person. And these are the things that make people unacceptable to God.”

Jesus Helps a Non-Jewish Woman^(A)

²⁴ Jesus went from there to the area around Tyre. He did not want the people in that area to know he was there, so he went into a house. But he could not stay hidden. ²⁵ A woman heard that he was there. Her little daughter had an evil spirit inside her. So the woman came to Jesus and bowed down near his feet. ²⁶ She was not a Jew. She was born in Phoenicia, an area in Syria. She begged Jesus to force the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ Jesus told the woman, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs. First let the children eat all they want.”

²⁸ She answered, “That is true, Lord. But the dogs under the table can eat the pieces of food that the children don’t eat.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “That is a very good answer. You may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ The woman went home and found her daughter lying on the bed. The demon was gone.

Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

³¹ Then Jesus left the area around Tyre and went through Sidon. On his way to Lake Galilee he went through the area of the Ten Towns. ³² While he was there, some people brought a man to him who was deaf and could not talk clearly. The people begged Jesus to put his hand on the man to heal him.

³³ Jesus led the man away from the people to be alone with him. He put his fingers in the man’s ears. Then he spit on a finger and put it on the man’s tongue. ³⁴ Jesus looked up to the sky and with a loud sigh he said, “Ephphatha!” (This means “Open!”) ³⁵ As soon as Jesus did this, the man was able to hear. He was able to use his tongue, and he began to speak clearly.

³⁶ Jesus told the people not to tell anyone about this. But the more he told them not to say anything, the more people they told. ³⁷ They were all completely amazed. They said, “Look at what he has done. It’s all good. He makes deaf people able to hear and gives a new voice to people who could not talk.”