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chapter 15
1. Then 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!”
3. He answered, “Indeed, why do you break the command of God by your tradition?
4. For God said, "Honor your father and mother", (Shmot - Exodus 20:12) and "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death". (Exodus 21:17)
5. But 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,”
6. then 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!
7. You 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
9. Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines. (Yesha‘yahu - Isaiah 29:13)
10. Then he called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand this!
11. What makes a person unclean is not what goes into his mouth; rather, what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean!”
12. The talmidim came to him and said, “Do you know that the P’rushim were offended by what you said?”
13. He replied, “Every plant that my Father in heaven has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.
14. Let them be. They are blind guides. When a blind man guides another blind man, both will fall in a pit.”
15. Kefa said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”
16. So he said, “Don’t you understand even now?
17. Don’t you see that anything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and passes out into the latrine?
18. But what comes out of your mouth is actually coming from your heart, and that is what makes a person unclean.
19. For out of the heart come forth wicked thoughts, murder, adultery and other kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lies, slanders...
20. These are what really make a person unclean, but eating without doing n’tilat-yadayim does not make a person unclean.”
On these verses, with their very important implications for Messianic Judaism. see the somewhat more complete parallel passage at Mk 7.1-23&NN.

21. Yeshua left that place and went off to the region of Tzor and Tzidon.
22. A 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!”
23. But 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.”
24. He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Isra’el.”
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Yeshua's personal mission prior to his death and resurrection was only to the Jews, God's people. After the Holy Spirit was given, the Gospel would reach Gentiles even in "the farthest parts of the earth" (Ac 1:8), who would be grafted into Israel through the Messiah (Ro 11:16-24).

25. But she came, fell at his feet and said, “Sir, help me!”
26. He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.”
Pet dogs. There are two Greek words for "dog": "kuon" scavenging hounds that roam the streets in packs (7:6, Lk 16:21, Pp 3:2,2 Ke 2:22, Rv 22:15), and "kunarion" small dogs kept as house pets (only in this passage and its parallel, Mk 7:27-28). Yet even if Gentiles are not here compared with wild snarling beasts, are they still not being insulted? The answer can only be: no more than in the Tanakh itself, where the people of Israel are taken by God in a special way as his children. And although Judaism teaches that the righteous Gentiles of the world have a share in the world to come, this is not a primary focus either in the Tanakh or in rabbinic Judaism.

27. She said, “That is true, sir, but even the dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their master’s table.”
28. Then 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.
The woman is not offended but understands what she has been told. In humility she accepts not only her own role analogous to that of a house pet being fed crumbs from the master's table, but also the implication that Yeshua's Messianic mission is not for the present directed at Gentiles but at Jews.

This passage raises the question: does Yeshua (reat Gentiles in a demeaning way? Is he a Jewish chauvinist? The notes to the following verses address this issue. For more, see Appendix, p. 931.

On these terms Yeshua grants her request. Her case differs from that of the Roman army officer at 8:5-13, an isolated Gentile in a Jewish community. Had Yeshua healed the daughter immediately, this bold talkative woman would surely have spread the news, unleashing an onslaught of Gentiles with needs; and this might well have tempted him to neglect his commission to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

29. Yeshua left there and went along the shore of Lake Kinneret. He climbed a hill and sat down;
30. and 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.
31. The 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.
32. Yeshua 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.”
33. The talmidim said to him, “Where will we find enough loaves of bread in this remote place to satisfy so big a crowd?”
34. Yeshua asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few fish.”
35. After telling the crowd to sit down on the ground,
36. he 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.
37. Everyone ate his fill, and they took seven large baskets full of the leftover pieces.
38. Those eating numbered four thousand men, plus women and children.
39. After sending the crowd away, he got in the boat and went off to the region of Magadan.
The boat, last mentioned when left at Ginosar (14:34).