Luke 14-16 (Amplified Bible)

Luke 14

 ¹IT OCCURRED one Sabbath, when [Jesus] went for a meal at the house of one of the ruling Pharisees, that they were [engaged in] watching Him [closely].

    ²And behold, [just] in front of Him there was a man who had dropsy.

    ³And Jesus asked the lawyers and the Pharisees, Is it lawful and right to cure on the Sabbath or not?

    ⁴But they kept silent. Then He took hold [of the man] and cured him and ^[a]sent him away.

    ⁵And He said to them, Which of you, having a son ^[b]or a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not at once pull him out on the Sabbath day?

    ⁶And they were unable to reply to this.

    ⁷Now He told a parable to those who were invited, [when] He noticed how they were selecting the places of honor, saying to them,

    ⁸When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, do not recline on the chief seat [in the place of honor], lest a more distinguished person than you has been invited by him,^(A)

    ⁹And he who invited both of you will come to you and say, Let this man have the place [you have taken]. Then, with humiliation and a guilty sense of impropriety, you will begin to take the lowest place.

    ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when your host comes in, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher! Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit [at table] with you.

    ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (ranked below others who are honored or rewarded), and he who humbles himself (keeps a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly) will be exalted (elevated in rank).

    ¹²Jesus also said to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and so you are paid back.

    ¹³But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind.

    ¹⁴Then you will be blessed (happy, fortunate, and ^[c]to be envied), because they have no way of repaying you, and you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (upright).

    ¹⁵When one of those who reclined [at the table] with Him heard this, he said to Him, Blessed (happy, fortunate, and ^[d]to be envied) is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!

    ¹⁶But Jesus said to him, A man was once giving a great supper and invited many;

    ¹⁷And at the hour for the supper he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready.

    ¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses and to beg off. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I have to go out and see it; I beg you, have me excused.

    ¹⁹And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine and ^[e]put my approval on them; I beg you, have me excused.

    ²⁰And another said, I have married a wife, and because of this I am unable to come.^(B)

    ²¹So the servant came and reported these [answers] to his master. Then the master of the house said in wrath to his servant, Go quickly into the ^[f]great streets and the small streets of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.

    ²²And the servant [returning] said, Sir, what you have commanded me to do has been done, and yet there is room.

    ²³Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and urge and constrain [them] to yield and come in, so that my house may be filled.

    ²⁴For I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall taste my supper.

    ²⁵Now huge crowds were going along with [Jesus], and He turned and said to them,

    ²⁶If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [^[g]in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters--[yes] and even his own life also--he cannot be My disciple.

    ²⁷Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple.

    ²⁸For which of you, wishing to build a ^[h]farm building, does not first sit down and calculate the cost [to see] whether he has sufficient means to finish it?

    ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is unable to complete [the building], all who see it will begin to mock and jeer at him,

    ³⁰Saying, This man began to build and was not able (^[i]worth enough) to finish.

    ³¹Or what king, going out to engage in conflict with another king, will not first sit down and consider and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand [men] to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

    ³²And if he cannot [do so], when the other king is still a great way off, he sends an envoy and asks the terms of peace.

    ³³So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, ^[j]say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.

    ³⁴Salt is good [an excellent thing], but if salt has lost its strength and has become saltless (insipid, flat), how shall its saltness be restored?

    ³⁵It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure heap; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him listen and consider and comprehend by hearing!

   

Luke 15

 ¹NOW THE tax collectors and [notorious and ^[k]especially wicked] sinners were all coming near to [Jesus] to listen to Him.

    ²And the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering and indignantly complaining, saying, This man accepts and receives and welcomes [^[l]preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them.

    ³So He told them this parable:

    ⁴What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

    ⁵And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing.

    ⁶And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost.

    ⁷Thus, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one [^[m]especially] wicked person who repents (^[n]changes his mind, abhorring his errors and misdeeds, and determines to enter upon a better course of life) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.

    ⁸Or what woman, having ten [silver] drachmas [each one equal to a day's wages], if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and look carefully and diligently until she finds it?

    ⁹And when she has found it, she summons her [women] friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the silver coin which I had lost.

    ¹⁰Even so, I tell you, there is joy among and in the presence of the angels of God over one [^[o]especially] wicked person who repents (^[p]changes his mind for the better, heartily amending his ways, with abhorrence of his past sins).

    ¹¹And He said, There was a certain man who had two sons;

    ¹²And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the part of the property that falls [to me]. And he divided the estate between them.^(C)

    ¹³And not many days after that, the younger son gathered up all that he had and journeyed into a distant country, and there he wasted his fortune in reckless and loose [from restraint] living.

    ¹⁴And when he had spent all he had, a ^[q]mighty famine came upon that country, and he began to fall behind and be in want.

    ¹⁵So he went and forced (glued) himself upon one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed hogs.

    ¹⁶And he would gladly have fed on and ^[r]filled his belly with the ^[s]carob pods that the hogs were eating, but [they could not satisfy his hunger and] nobody gave him anything [better].^(D)

    ¹⁷Then when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father have enough food, and [even food] to spare, but I am perishing (dying) here of hunger!

    ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

    ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; [just] make me like one of your hired servants.

    ²⁰So he got up and came to his [own] father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness [for him]; and he ran and embraced him and kissed him [^[t]fervently].

    ²¹And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son [I no longer deserve to be recognized as a son of yours]!

    ²²But the father said to his bond servants, Bring quickly the best robe (the festive robe of honor) and put it on him; and give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet.^(E)

    ²³And bring out ^[u]that [wheat-]fattened calf and kill it; and let us ^[v]revel and feast and be happy and make merry,

    ²⁴Because this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! And they began to ^[w]revel and feast and make merry.

    ²⁵But his older son was in the field; and as he returned and came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

    ²⁶And having called one of the servant [boys] to him, he began to ask what this meant.

    ²⁷And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed ^[x]that [wheat-]fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and well.

    ²⁸But [the elder brother] was angry [with deep-seated wrath] and resolved not to go in. Then his father came out and began to plead with him,

    ²⁹But he answered his father, Look! These many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me [so much as] a [little] kid, that I might ^[y]revel and feast and be happy and make merry with my friends;

    ³⁰But when this son of yours arrived, who has devoured your estate with immoral women, you have killed for him ^[z]that [wheat-] fattened calf!

    ³¹And the father said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

    ³²But it was fitting to make merry, to ^[aa]revel and feast and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!

   

Luke 16

 ¹ALSO [Jesus] said to the disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a ^[ab]manager of his estate, and accusations [against this man] were brought to him, that he was squandering his [master's] possessions.

    ²And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management [of my affairs], for you can be [my] manager no longer.

    ³And the manager of the estate said to himself, What shall I do, seeing that my master is taking the management away from me? I am not able to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

    ⁴I have come to know what I will do, so that they [my master's debtors] may accept and welcome me into their houses when I am put out of the management.

    ⁵So he summoned his master's debtors one by one, and he said to the first, How much do you owe my master?

    ⁶He said, A hundred measures [about 900 gallons] of oil. And he said to him, Take back your written acknowledgement of ^[ac]obligation, and sit down quickly and write fifty [about 450 gallons].

    ⁷After that he said to another, And how much do you owe? He said, A hundred measures [about 900 bushels] of wheat. He said to him, Take back your written acknowledgement of ^[ad]obligation, and write eighty [about 700 bushels].

    ⁸And [his] master praised the dishonest (unjust) manager for acting ^[ae]shrewdly and ^[af]prudently; for the sons of this age are shrewder and more prudent and wiser in [^[ag]relation to] their own generation [to their own age and ^[ah]kind] than are the sons of light.

    ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon (^[ai]deceitful riches, money, possessions), so that when it fails, they [those you have favored] may receive and welcome you into the everlasting habitations (dwellings).

    ¹⁰He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much.

    ¹¹Therefore if you have not been faithful in the [case of] unrighteous mammon (^[aj]deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches?

    ¹²And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another [whether God or man], who will give you that which is your own [that is, ^[ak]the true riches]?

    ¹³No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or ^[al]anything in which you trust and on which you rely).

    ¹⁴Now the Pharisees, who were covetous and lovers of money, heard all these things [taken together], and they began to sneer at and ridicule and scoff at Him.

    ¹⁵But He said to them, You are the ones who declare yourselves just and upright before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted and highly thought of among men is detestable and abhorrent (an abomination) in the sight of God. [I Sam. 16:7; Prov. 21:2.]

    ¹⁶Until John came, there were the Law and the Prophets; since then the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone strives violently to go in [would force his ^[am]own way rather than God's way into it].

    ¹⁷Yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to fail and become void.

    ¹⁸Whoever divorces (dismisses and repudiates) his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

    ¹⁹There was a certain rich man who [habitually] clothed himself in purple and fine linen and ^[an]reveled and feasted and made merry in splendor every day.

    ²⁰And at his gate there ^[ao]was [carelessly] dropped down and left a certain ^[ap]utterly destitute man named Lazarus, [reduced to begging alms and] covered with [^[aq]ulcerated] sores.

    ²¹He [eagerly] desired to be satisfied with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs even came and licked his sores.

    ²²And it occurred that the man [reduced to] begging died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

    ²³And in Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.

    ²⁴And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.

    ²⁵But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime fully received [what is due you in] comforts and delights, and Lazarus in like manner the discomforts and distresses; but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.

    ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who want to pass from this [place] to you may not be able, and no one may pass from there to us.

    ²⁷And [the man] said, Then, father, I beseech you to send him to my father's house--

    ²⁸For I have five brothers--so that he may give [solemn] testimony and warn them, lest they too come into this place of torment.

    ²⁹But Abraham said, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear and listen to them.

    ³⁰But he answered, No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent (^[ar]change their minds for the better and heartily amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins).

    ³¹He said to him, If they do not hear and listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded and convinced and believe [even] if someone should rise from the dead.