New Testament in a Year

15 And all the tax-gatherers and the sinners were coming nigh to him, to hear him,

² and the Pharisees and the scribes were murmuring, saying -- This one doth receive sinners, and doth eat with them.'

³ And he spake unto them this simile, saying,

⁴ `What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one out of them, doth not leave behind the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go on after the lost one, till he may find it?

⁵ and having found, he doth lay [it] on his shoulders rejoicing,

⁶ and having come to the house, he doth call together the friends and the neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I found my sheep -- the lost one.

⁷ `I say to you, that so joy shall be in the heaven over one sinner reforming, rather than over ninety-nine righteous men, who have no need of reformation.

⁸ `Or what woman having ten drachms, if she may lose one drachm, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek carefully till that she may find?

⁹ and having found, she doth call together the female friends and the neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the drachm that I lost.

¹⁰ `So I say to you, joy doth come before the messengers of God over one sinner reforming.'