Old/New Testament

¹⁴ Then Jesus called the people to him again. He said, `Listen to me, all of you, and understand what I say.

¹⁵ What goes into a person's mouth does not make him dirty. But what comes out of a person's mouth makes him dirty.

¹⁶ Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!'

¹⁷ Jesus left the people and went into a house. His disciples asked him the meaning of the story.

¹⁸ He said, `Do you still not understand? Do you not know this? What goes into a person from the outside cannot make a person dirty.

¹⁹ It does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then it goes out of the body.' By saying this, Jesus meant that food does not make a person dirty.

²⁰ But he said, `What comes out of a person makes him dirty. 21,

²¹ Here is what comes from the heart: wrong thoughts, all kinds of adultery, stealing, killing, wanting things that other people have, doing very wrong things, fooling people, breaking the law, jealousy, saying wrong things about people, being proud, being foolish.

²² All these wrong things come from a person's heart and make him dirty.'

²³ Then Jesus went away to the country of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. But he could not hide from the people.

²⁴ Right away a woman heard of him. She came and kneeled down before him. Her daughter had a bad spirit in her.

²⁵ The woman was not a Jew and had been born in the country of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the bad spirit out of her daughter.

²⁶ But Jesus said to her, `We will give the children all they want to eat first. It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the little dogs.'

²⁷ She answered, `Yes, Sir. But even the little dogs under the table eat food that falls from the children's table.'

²⁸ Jesus said to her, `Because you have said this, you may go home. The bad spirit has gone out of your daughter.'

²⁹ When she came to her house, she found that the bad spirit had left. Her daughter was lying on the bed.

³⁰ Jesus went away from Tyre and Sidon and came to the sea of Galilee. He passed through the country of the Ten Towns.

³¹ The people brought a man to Jesus who could not hear and could not talk well. They begged Jesus to put his hand on him.

³² So Jesus took him away alone. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spat and touched the man's tongue.

³³ He looked up to heaven and sighed. He said, `Ephphatha!' That means, `Be opened!'

³⁴ Right away the man's ears were opened and his tongue was made free. He could talk well.

³⁵ Jesus said, `Do not tell anyone.' But the more he told them not to tell, the more they told it everywhere.

³⁶ The people were very much surprised. They said, `He has done everything well. The people who could not hear can hear. The people who could not talk can talk.'