1 Now the tax gatherers and sinners were all approaching him to listen to him,
2 but the Pharisees and the scribes complained, "He welcomes sinners and eats along with them!"
3 So he told them this parable,
4 "Which of you with a hundred sheep, if he loses one, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one till he finds it?
5 When he finds it he puts it on his shoulders with joy,
6 and when he gets home he gathers his friends and neighbours: 'Rejoice with me,' he says to them, 'for I have found the sheep I lost.'
7 So, I tell you, there will be joy in heaven over a single sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine good people who do not need to repent.
8 Or again, suppose a woman has ten shillings. If she loses one of them, does she not light a lamp and scour the house and search carefully till she finds it?
9 And when she finds it she gathers her women-friends and neighbours, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the shilling I lost.'
10 So, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over a single sinner who repents."
11 He also said: "There was a man who had two sons,
12 and the younger said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.' So he divided his means among them.
13 Not many days later, the younger son sold off everything and went abroad to a distant land, where he squandered his means in loose living.
14 After he had spent his all, a severe famine set in throughout that land, and he began to feel in want;
15 so he went and attached himself to a citizen of that land, who sent him to his fields to feed swine.
16 And he was fain to fill his belly with the pods the swine were eating; no one gave him anything.
17 But when he came to his senses he said, 'How many hired men of my father have more than enough to eat, and here am I perishing of hunger!
18 I will be up and off to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;
19 I don't deserve to be called your son any more; only make me like one of your hired men."'
20 So he got up and went off to his father. But when he was still far away his father saw him and felt pity for him and ran to fall upon his neck and kiss him.
21 The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I don't deserve to be called your son any more.'
22 But the father said to his servants, 'Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him, give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet,
23 and bring the fatted calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
24 for my son here was dead and he has come to life, he was lost and he is found.' So they began to make merry.
25 Now his elder son was out in the field, and as he came near the house he heard music and dancing;
26 so, summoning one of the servants, he asked what this meant.
27 The servant told him, 'Your brother has arrived, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.'
28 This angered him, and he would not go in. His father came out and tried to appease him,
29 but he replied, 'Look at all the years I have been serving you! I have never neglected any of your orders, and yet you have never given me so much as a kid, to let me make merry with my friends.
30 But as soon as this son of yours arrives, after having wasted your means with harlots, you kill the fatted calf for him!'