Matthew 15:21–39

A GENTILE MOTHER’S FAITH

²¹When Jesus left there,ⁿ he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.^{o 22}Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out,^A “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”^p

²³Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples^q approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”

²⁴He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”^r

²⁵But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”

²⁶He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”^s

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

²⁸Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment^B her daughter was healed.^t

HEALING MANY PEOPLE

²⁹Moving on from there,^u Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee.^v He went up on a mountain and sat there, ³⁰and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. ³¹So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing,^w and they gave glory to the God of Israel.

FEEDING OF THE FOUR THOUSAND

³²Jesus called his disciples and said,^x “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”

³³The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place^y to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them.

“Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”

³⁵After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, ³⁶he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.^{z 37}They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces—seven large baskets full. ³⁸Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. ³⁹After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.^Ca