17. When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him to explain this saying.
18. “You are no more intelligent than the others,” Jesus said to them. “Don't you understand? Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can really make him unclean,
19. because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and then goes on out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten.)
20. And he went on to say, “It is what comes out of a person that makes him unclean.
21. For from the inside, from a person's heart, come the evil ideas which lead him to do immoral things, to rob, kill,
22. commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly —
23. all these evil things come from inside a person and make him unclean.”
24. Then Jesus left and went away to the territory near the city of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not stay hidden.
25. A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard about Jesus and came to him at once and fell at his feet.
26. The woman was a Gentile, born in the region of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27. But Jesus answered, “Let us first feed the children. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”
28. “Sir,” she answered, “even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers!”