English Standard Version

Matthew 15:5-21 English Standard Version (ESV)

5. But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”

6. he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the wordof God.

7. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8. “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

9. in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

10. And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand:

11. it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

12. Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13. He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

14. Let them alone; they are blind guides.And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15. But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”

16. And he said, “Are you also still without understanding?

17. Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?

18. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

19. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

20. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

21. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.