7:1 Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,
7:2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed.
7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders;
7:4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.)
7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?"
7:6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
7:8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."
7:9 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
7:10 For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother'; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die';
7:11 but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) --
7:12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
7:13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do."
7:14 And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand:
7:15 there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him."
7:17 And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
7:18 And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him,
7:19 since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
7:20 And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man.
7:21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery,
7:22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man."
7:24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid.
7:25 But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet.
7:26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoeni'cian by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
7:27 And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
7:28 But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
7:29 And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter."
7:30 And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone.
7:31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decap'olis.
7:32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him.
7:33 And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue;
7:34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Eph'phatha," that is, "Be opened."
7:35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
7:36 And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
7:37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."
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