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Mark 7

¹Some Pharisees and some scribes came from Jerusalem and gathered around him. ²They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean hands, that is hands that had not been properly washed. ³For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a prescribed way, because they are keeping the tradition of the elders. ⁴They also won't eat things from the marketplace unless they have been dipped in watter, and they keep many other things that are passed down by tradition, washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and beds. ⁵Now the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the traditions of the elders, but eat bread with unclean hands?"

⁶So he told them,

Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, when he wrote:

This people honors me with their lips,
but they keep their heart hardened against me.
⁷They worship me in vain,
Teaching human commandments.
⁸You depart from God's command and hold to human tradition. ⁹Then he said to them, "Is it a good thing for you to set aside the command of God so that your tradition can stand?" ¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother," and "Anyone who curses father or mother shall be executed.' ¹¹But you say, 'If a man says to his father or to his mother, "The thing that you expected from me is Korban, a gift,"' ¹²--then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. ¹³You invalidate God's word in favor of your traditions which you have passed on. And you do many things like this.

¹⁴So he called the crowd and spoke to them again, "Listen to me and understand! ¹⁵There is nothing outside of a person that can make him impure by going in. It's the things that come out of a person that make him impure." ¹⁶{Let whoever has ears, hear!} ¹⁷And when he went into a house, away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸And he told them, "Are you so lacking in good sense? Don't you understand that nothing that comes from outside and goes into a person can make him impure, ¹⁹because they don't enter his heart, but his belly, and they come out as dung" (making all foods clean). ²⁰And he told them, "The things that come out of a person make him impure. ²¹Because it is from inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, sexual immorality, thefts, murders, ²²adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. ²³All of these things come from inside and make a man impure.

²⁴He left there and went to the region of Tyre, and he went into a household, hoping nobody would recognize him, but he was unable to stay unnoticed. ²⁵But there was a woman there right away who had heard about him. She had a daughter with an evil spirit, and she came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Greek, from Syrophoenicia, and she asked him to throw the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷But he said to here, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it down for the dogs." ²⁸But she asked him, "Sir! Don't even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from the children's table?" ²⁹And he said to her, "Because of this word, Go! The demon has left your daughter." ³⁰And she left and went home and found the child on the bed and the demon gone.

³¹He left the region of Tyre again, and came to sidon, to the sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³²And people brought him a deaf man with impaired speech and asked him to put his hand on him. ³³And Jesus took him away from the crowd, put his fingers in his ears, spit, and touched his tongue with it. ³⁴And he looked up into heaven, sighed, and said to him, "Ephphathah!" (meaning be opened). ³⁵And his hearing was immediately opened up, and the bonds of his tongue were broken, and he spoke clearly. ³⁶And Jesus commaded them not to tell anyone, but the more he commanded the more they proclaimed. ³⁷And the crowd was amazed beyond all measure and said, "He has done everything well, and he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."

Average revision: 3 (Draft # 1 by individual translator)