15 Then from Jerusalem came scribes and Pharisees and said,

² Why do Your disciples transgress and violate the rules handed down by the elders of the past? For they do not practice [ceremonially] washing their hands before they eat.

³ He replied to them, And why also do you transgress and violate the commandment of God for the sake of the rules handed down to you by your forefathers (the elders)?

⁴ For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and, He who curses or reviles or speaks evil of or abuses or treats improperly his father or mother, let him surely come to his end by death.^(A)

⁵ But you say, If anyone tells his father or mother, What you would have gained from me [that is, the money and whatever I have that might be used for helping you] is already dedicated as a gift to God, then he is exempt and no longer under obligation to honor and help his father or his mother.

⁶ So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside the Word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect].

⁷ You pretenders (hypocrites)! Admirably and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said:

⁸ These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me.

⁹ Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men.^(B)

¹⁰ And Jesus called the people to Him and said to them, Listen and grasp and comprehend this:

¹¹ It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles [him].

¹² Then the disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were displeased and offended and indignant when they heard this saying?

¹³ He answered, Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be torn up by the roots.^(C)

¹⁴ Let them alone and disregard them; they are blind guides and teachers. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a ditch.

¹⁵ But Peter said to Him, Explain this ^[a]proverb (this ^[b]maxim) to us.

¹⁶ And He said, Are you also even yet dull and ignorant [without understanding and ^[c]unable to put things together]?

¹⁷ Do you not see and understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the ^[d]abdomen and so passes on into the place where discharges are deposited?

¹⁸ But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what makes a man unclean and defiles [him].

¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech.

²⁰ These are what make a man unclean and defile [him]; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean or defile [him].

²¹ And going away from there, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

²² And behold, a woman who was a Canaanite from that district came out and, with a [loud, troublesomely urgent] cry, begged, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is miserably and distressingly and cruelly possessed by a demon!

²³ But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us.

²⁴ He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

²⁵ But she came and, kneeling, worshiped Him and kept praying, Lord, help me!

²⁶ And He answered, It is not right (proper, becoming, or fair) to take the children’s bread and throw it to the ^[e]little dogs.

²⁷ She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the little pups (^[f]little whelps) eat the crumbs that fall from their [young] masters’ table.

²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you wish. And her daughter was cured from that ^[g]moment.

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1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:

² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

⁵ All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶ Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.

⁷ But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was full of them.

⁸ Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

⁹ He said to his people, Behold, the Israelites are too many and too mighty for us [and they ^[a]outnumber us both in people and in strength].

¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply more and, should war befall us, they join our enemies, fight against us, and escape out of the land.

¹¹ So they set over [the Israelites] taskmasters to afflict and oppress them with [increased] burdens. And [the Israelites] built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

¹² But the more [the Egyptians] oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, so that [the Egyptians] were vexed and alarmed because of the Israelites.

¹³ And the Egyptians reduced the Israelites to severe slavery.

¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar, brick, and all kinds of work in the field. All their service was with harshness and severity.

¹⁵ Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom one was named Shiprah and the other Puah,

¹⁶ When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.

¹⁷ But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded, but let the male babies live.

¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this thing and allowed the male children to live?

¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; they are vigorous and quickly delivered; their babies are born before the midwife comes to them.

²⁰ So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and became very strong.

²¹ And because the midwives revered and feared God, He made them households [of their own].

²² Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son born [to the Hebrews] you shall cast into the river [Nile], but every daughter you shall allow to live.

2 Now [Amram] a man of the house of Levi [the priestly tribe] went and took as his wife [Jochebed] a daughter of Levi.^(A)

² And the woman became pregnant and bore a son; and when she saw that he was [exceedingly] beautiful, she hid him three months.^(B)

³ And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus [making it watertight by] daubing it with bitumen and pitch. Then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes by the brink of the river [Nile].

⁴ And his sister [Miriam] stood some distance away to ^[b]learn what would be done to him.

⁵ Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the bank; she saw the ark among the rushes and sent her maid to fetch it.

⁶ When she opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the baby cried. And she took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children!

⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?

⁸ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child’s mother.

⁹ Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed it.

¹⁰ And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she called him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

¹¹ One day, after Moses was grown, it happened that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of [Moses’] brethren.

¹² He looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³ He went out the second day and saw two Hebrew men quarreling and fighting; and he said to the unjust aggressor, Why are you striking your comrade?

¹⁴ And the man said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely this thing is known.

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh’s presence and ^[c]took refuge in the land of Midian, where he sat down by a well.

¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

¹⁷ The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.

¹⁸ And when they came to Reuel [Jethro] their father, he said, How is it that you have come so soon today?

¹⁹ They said, An Egyptian delivered us from the shepherds; also he drew water for us and watered the flock.

²⁰ He said to his daughters, Where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.

²¹ And Moses was content to dwell with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

²² And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom [expulsion, or a stranger there]; for he said, I have been a stranger and a sojourner in a foreign land.

²³ However, after a long time [nearly forty years] the king of Egypt died; and the Israelites were sighing and groaning because of the bondage. They kept crying, and their cry because of slavery ascended to God.

²⁴ And God heard their sighing and groaning and [earnestly] remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

²⁵ God saw the Israelites and took knowledge of them and concerned Himself about them [knowing all, understanding, remembering all].^(C)