Mattityahu (Mat) 15
15
1Then some P’rushim and Torah-teachers from Yerushalayim came to Yeshua and asked him, 2“Why is it that your talmidim break the Tradition of the Elders? They don’t do n’tilat-yadayim before they eat!” 3He answered, “Indeed, why do you break the command of God by your tradition? 4For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 5But you say, ‘If anyone says to his father or mother, “I have promised to give to God what I might have used to help you,” 6then he is rid of his duty to honor his father or mother.’ Thus by your tradition you make null and void the word of God! 7You hypocrites! Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you,
8‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
9Their worship of me is useless,
because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’”
10Then he called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand this! 11What makes a person unclean is not what goes into his mouth; rather, what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean!”
12The talmidim came to him and said, “Do you know that the P’rushim were offended by what you said?” 13He replied, “Every plant that my Father in heaven has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14Let them be. They are blind guides. When a blind man guides another blind man, both will fall in a pit.”
15Kefa said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16So he said, “Don’t you understand even now? 17Don’t you see that anything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and passes out into the latrine? 18But what comes out of your mouth is actually coming from your heart, and that is what makes a person unclean. 19For out of the heart come forth wicked thoughts, murder, adultery and other kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lies, slanders. . . . 20These are what really make a person unclean, but eating without doing n’tilat-yadayim does not make a person unclean.”
21Yeshua left that place and went off to the region of Tzor and Tzidon. 22A woman from Kena‘an who was living there came to him, pleading, “Sir, have pity on me. Son of David! My daughter is cruelly held under the power of demons!” 23But Yeshua did not say a word to her. Then his talmidim came to him and urged him, “Send her away, because she is following us and keeps pestering us with her crying.” 24He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Isra’el.” 25But she came, fell at his feet and said, “Sir, help me!” 26He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 27She said, “That is true, sir, but even the dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their master’s table.” 28Then Yeshua answered her, “Lady, you are a person of great trust. Let your desire be granted.” And her daughter was healed at that very moment.
29Yeshua left there and went along the shore of Lake Kinneret. He climbed a hill and sat down; 30and large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them. 31The people were amazed as they saw mute people speaking, crippled people cured, lame people walking and blind people seeing; and they said a b’rakhah to the God of Isra’el.
32Yeshua called his talmidim to him and said, “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me three days, and now they have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, because they might collapse on the way home.” 33The talmidim said to him, “Where will we find enough loaves of bread in this remote place to satisfy so big a crowd?” 34Yeshua asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few fish.” 35After telling the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36he took the seven loaves and the fish, made a b’rakhah, broke the loaves and gave them to the talmidim, who gave them to the people. 37Everyone ate his fill, and they took seven large baskets full of the leftover pieces. 38Those eating numbered four thousand men, plus women and children. 39After sending the crowd away, he got in the boat and went off to the region of Magadan.
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Mattityahu (Mat) 15: CJB
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Learn More About Complete Jewish BibleMatthew 15
15
What Pollutes Your Life
1-2After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, “Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?”
3-9But Jesus put it right back on them. “Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they’re worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”
10-11He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”
12Later his disciples came and told him, “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?”
13-14Jesus shrugged it off. “Every tree that wasn’t planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”
15Peter said, “I don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
16-20Jesus replied, “You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.”
Healing the People
21-22From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.”
23Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy.”
24Jesus refused, telling them, “I’ve got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel.”
25Then the woman came back to Jesus, dropped to her knees, and begged. “Master, help me.”
26He said, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.”
27She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.”
28Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
29-31After Jesus returned, he walked along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus’ feet to see what he would do with them. He healed them. When the people saw the mutes speaking, the maimed healthy, the paraplegics walking around, the blind looking around, they were astonished and let everyone know that God was blazingly alive among them.
* * *
32But Jesus wasn’t finished with them. He called his disciples and said, “I hurt for these people. For three days now they’ve been with me, and now they have nothing to eat. I can’t send them away without a meal—they’d probably collapse on the road.”
33His disciples said, “But where in this deserted place are you going to dig up enough food for a meal?”
34-39Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?”
“Seven loaves,” they said, “plus a few fish.” At that, Jesus directed the people to sit down. He took the seven loaves and the fish. After giving thanks, he divided it up and gave it to the people. Everyone ate. They had all they wanted. It took seven large baskets to collect the leftovers. Over four thousand people ate their fill at that meal. After Jesus sent them away, he climbed in the boat and crossed over to the Magadan hills.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.