Mark 7:27-37

²⁷Jesus said to her, “I belong to the Jewish tribe. I have to look after my own people first, not you people that are not Jewish. A man feeds his own kids first. He will not take their food and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸The woman said, “Yes teacher, you are right about that, but while those kids are eating they drop a few little bits of food, and the dogs under the table can eat those little bits of food. I’m not Jewish but you can still do a little bit for me.”

²⁹Jesus said, “That is a good answer. It shows me that you trust me. You can go home now. I made that bad spirit go out from your daughter just now.”

³⁰Then the woman went home and found her daughter lying down quietly on a bed. The bad spirit was gone.

³¹Then Jesus left Tyre and walked back through another town called Sidon, and then he went around the north of Lake Galilee to the country everyone called Ten Towns.

³²Some people brought a man to Jesus. This man was deaf and he couldn’t talk properly. The man’s friends asked Jesus strongly to put his hand on their friend and make him better.

³³Jesus took the man away from the other people and put his fingers in the man’s ears. He spat and touched the man’s tongue.

³⁴Then Jesus looked up into the sky and prayed for the man. He talked in their language, he said, “Ephpatha,” which means Open up.

³⁵And straight away that man could hear properly, and his tongue was better so he could talk properly.

³⁶Jesus went back and told the people strongly, “Don’t tell anyone about the great thing I just did.” But they didn’t listen to Jesus. More and more he asked them to stay quiet but more and more they told other people, “Jesus made that man better.”

³⁷Everyone was really surprised and they said to each other, “Jesus does everything properly. He does really good things for people. He makes deaf people better, so they can hear again, and people that can’t talk, he makes them better too, so they can talk.”