Luke 15:1-32
15 And all the customhouse officers and the people of bad character were nearing him to listen to him;
2 and the Pharisees and the scribes went to talking and said “This man receives people of bad character and eats with them.”
3 But he told them this parable:
4 “What man among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one till he finds it?
5 and upon finding it he joyfully takes it on his shoulder,
6 and when he gets home he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
7 I tell you, just so there will be rejoicing in heaven over one repenting sinner more than over ninety-nine saints who are in no need of repentance.
8 Or what woman, having ten drachmas, if she loses one does not light a lamp and sweep the house and look carefully till she finds it?
9 and upon finding it she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the drachma I lost.’
10 Just so, I tell you, there is a rejoicing before the angels of God over one repenting sinner.”
11 And he said “Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons,
12 and the younger of them said to his father ‘Father, give me my share of the property.’ And he apportioned his means between them;
13 and after not many days the younger son got everything together and went off to a distant country, and there he scattered his property in a life of dissipation.
14 And when he had spent everything there came a hard famine in that country, and he began to be in want
15 and went and fastened himself upon one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him to his fields to tend hogs.
16 * And he was wishing he could fill his stomach with the pods that the hogs ate, and nobody gave him anything.
17 But he came to himself and said ‘How many hired men of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I am starving to death here!
18 I will be going, and go to my father, and say to him “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
19 I no longer deserve to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men”’;
20 and he set out and came to his father. But when he was still far off his father saw him, and his heart was moved, and he ran and threw himself on his neck and went to kissing him.
21 And his son said to him ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I no longer deserve to be called your son’—
22 but the father said to his servants ‘Bring the best robe out quick and put it on him, and give us a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet;
23 and bring the stall-fed calf, kill it, and let us eat and have a gay time,
24 because my son here was dead and has come back to life, he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to be gay.
25 But his older son was in the field; and when in coming home he drew near the house he heard a bagpipe and dancing,
26 and he called one of the servants and inquired what that might be.
27 And he told him ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the stall-fed calf because he had got him back safe and sound’;
28 and he was angry and would not go in. And his father went out and pleaded with him;
29 but he answered his father ‘Here have I been slaving for you so many years, and never went against a command of yours, and you never gave me a kid to have a gay time with my friends;
30 but when this son of yours who has been eating up your means with prostitutes came, you killed the stall-fed calf for him.’
31 But he said to him ‘My boy, you are with me always, and everything of mine is yours;
32 but we had to have a glad gay time because this brother of yours had been dead and came to life, had been lost and was found.’”
Footnotes
^ 15:16 Var. could eat his fill of the pods
