¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and those [preeminently] sinful?

¹² But when Jesus heard it, He replied, Those who are strong and well (healthy) have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick.

¹³ Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy [that is, ^[a]readiness to help those in trouble] and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims. For I came not to call and invite [to repentance] the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin).^(A)

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to Jesus, inquiring, Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast ^[b]often, [that is, abstain from food and drink as a religious exercise], but Your disciples do not fast?

¹⁵ And Jesus replied to them, Can the wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶ And no one puts a piece of cloth that has not been shrunk on an old garment, for such a patch tears away from the garment and a worse rent (tear) is made.

¹⁷ Neither is new wine put in old wineskins; for if it is, the skins burst and are ^[c]torn in pieces, and the wine is spilled and the skins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.

¹⁶ And the scribes [belonging to the party] of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with [those ^[a]definitely known to be especially wicked] sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, Why does He eat and drink with tax collectors and [notorious] sinners?

¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick; I came not to call the righteous ones to repentance, but sinners (the ^[b]erring ones and ^[c]all those not free from sin).

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were observing a fast; and [some people] came and asked Jesus, Why are John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fasting, but Your disciples are not doing so?

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, Can the wedding guests fast (abstain from food and drink) while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and they will fast in that day.

²¹ No one sews a patch of unshrunken (new) goods on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and the rent (tear) becomes bigger and worse [than it was before].

²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the bottles destroyed; but new wine is to be put in new (fresh) wineskins.

³⁰ Now the Pharisees and their scribes were grumbling against Jesus’ disciples, saying, Why are you eating and drinking with tax collectors and [preeminently] sinful people?

³¹ And Jesus replied to them, It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

³² I have not come to arouse and invite and call the righteous, but ^[a]the erring ones (^[b]those not free from sin) to repentance [^[c]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins].

³³ Then they said to Him, The disciples of John practice fasting often and offer up prayers of [special] petition, and so do [the disciples] of the Pharisees also, but Yours eat and drink.

³⁴ And Jesus said to them, Can you make the wedding guests fast as long as the bridegroom is with them?

³⁵ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; and then they will fast in those days.

³⁶ He told them a ^[d]proverb also: No one puts a patch from a new garment on an old garment; if he does, he will both tear the new one, and the patch from the new [one] will not match the old [garment].

³⁷ And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the fresh wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be ruined (destroyed).

³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine immediately desires new wine, for he says, The old is good or ^[e]better.