The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ Also He spoke this parable to some ^(A)who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee ^(B)stood and prayed thus with himself, ^(C)‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ ¹³ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; ^(D)for everyone who exalts himself will be ^[a]humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

^23 (A)He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

An Unclean Spirit Returns^(B)

^24 (C)“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ ²⁵ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. ²⁶ Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and ^(D)the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

¹⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of ^[a]hell as yourselves.

²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(A)For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and ^[a]self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

²¹ For ^(A)He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become ^(B)the righteousness of God in Him.