Old/New Testament

19 Jesus came to the city of Jericho and was passing through it.

² A man named Zacchaeus was there. He was the head tax collector, and he was a rich man.

³ He wanted to see who Jesus was but he could not see him because he was a short man and there were many people around him.

⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed into a tree to see Jesus, for he was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up. He said, `Zacchaeus, come down right now. I must stay at your house today.'

⁶ So Zacchaeus came down right then. He was glad to have Jesus come in his house.

⁷ When all the people saw this, they did not like it. They said, `He has gone to visit a bad man.'

⁸ Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, `Look, Lord, I will give to the poor people half of all I have. And if I have cheated anyone, I will give him back four times as much as I took.'

⁹ Jesus said to him, `The head of this house has been saved today! He also is a son of Abraham.

¹⁰ The Son of Man came to look for and to save those who are lost.'

¹¹ While they were listening to this, he started to tell them a story. He did so because they were near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God would begin right away.

¹² So he said, `A man who belonged to a respected family went to a country far away. He went to get power to rule. Then he was going to come back.

¹³ Before he left, he called ten of his servants. He gave each of them some money. He said, "Go and trade with this money until I come back."

¹⁴ `His people hated him. They chose some men and sent them after him to tell the king, "We do not want this man to rule over us."

¹⁵ But he was given the power to rule and came back. Then he called the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much money each one had made by trading.

¹⁶ The first one came to him and said, "Sir, your money has made ten times more money."

¹⁷ `The ruler said, "You have done well. You are a good servant. You will rule over ten cities because you have done well with a very small thing."

¹⁸ The second one came to him and said, "Sir, your money has made five times more money."

¹⁹ The ruler said, "You will rule over five cities."

²⁰ `Then another servant came and said, "Sir, here is your money. I hid it in a cloth and kept it.

²¹ I was afraid of you. You are a hard man. You take in where you put nothing out. You gather where you did not plant."

²² `The ruler said "You bad servant! I will judge you by your own words. You knew that I was a hard man! You knew that I take in where I put nothing out. You knew that I gather where I did not plant.

²³ Why did you not put my money in the bank? Then when you came home I would have had my money with interest."

²⁴ `Some men were standing there. He said to them, "Take the money from him. Give it to the man who has ten times as much."

²⁵ They said, "Sir, he has ten times as much already!"

²⁶ The ruler said, "I tell you. Anyone who has some will get more. But he who does not have anything, even the little that he has will be taken away from him.

²⁷ But where are those people who hate me and did not want me to rule over them? Bring them here and kill them right here in front of me." '