Luke 15:1-16

¹And all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming nigh to him, to hear him,

²and the Pharisees and the scribes were murmuring, saying — This one doth receive sinners, and doth eat with them.'

³And he spake unto them this simile, saying,

⁴'What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one out of them, doth not leave behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go on after the lost one, till he may find it?

⁵and having found, he doth lay it on his shoulders rejoicing,

⁶and having come to the house, he doth call together the friends and the neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I found my sheep — the lost one.

⁷'I say to you, that so joy shall be in the heaven over one sinner reforming, rather than over ninety-nine righteous men, who have no need of reformation.

⁸'Or what woman having ten drachms, if she may lose one drachm, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek carefully till that she may find?

⁹and having found, she doth call together the female friends and the neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the drachm that I lost.

¹⁰'So I say to you, joy doth come before the messengers of God over one sinner reforming.'

¹¹And he said, 'A certain man had two sons,

¹²and the younger of them said to the father, Father, give me the portion of the substance falling to me, and he divided to them the living.

¹³'And not many days after, having gathered all together, the younger son went abroad to a far country, and there he scattered his substance, living riotously;

¹⁴and he having spent all, there came a mighty famine on that country, and himself began to be in want;

¹⁵and having gone on, he joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him to the fields to feed swine,

¹⁶and he was desirous to fill his belly from the husks that the swine were eating, and no one was giving to him.