Chapter
15
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to her to hear her.
The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This woman welcomes sinners, and eats with them."
She told them this parable.
"Which of you women, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until she found it?
When she has found it, she carries it on her shoulders, rejoicing.
When she comes home, she calls together her friends and her neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'
I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
Or what man, if he had ten drachma coins, if he lost one drachma coin, wouldn't light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until he found it?
When he has found it, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.'
Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting."
She said, "A certain woman had two daughters.
The younger of them said to her mother, 'Mother, give me my share of your property.' She divided her livelihood between them.
Not many days after, the younger daughter gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There she wasted her property with riotous living.
When she had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and she began to be in need.
She went and joined herself to one of the citizens of that country, and she sent her into her fields to feed pigs.
She wanted to fill her belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave her any.
But when she came to herself she said, 'How many hired servants of my mother's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger!
I will get up and go to my mother, and will tell her, "Mother, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
I am no more worthy to be called your daughter. Make me as one of your hired servants."'
"She arose, and came to her mother. But while she was still far off, her mother saw her, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on her neck, and kissed her.
The daughter said to her, 'Mother, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your daughter.'
"But the mother said to her servants, 'Bring out the best robe, and put it on her. Put a ring on her hand, and shoes on her feet.
Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;
for this, my daughter, was dead, and is alive again. She was lost, and is found.' They began to celebrate.
"Now her elder daughter was in the field. As she came near to the house, she heard music and dancing.
She called one of the servants to her, and asked what was going on.
She said to her, 'Your sister has come, and your mother has killed the fattened calf, because she has received her back safe and healthy.'
But she was angry, and would not go in. Therefore her mother came out, and begged her.
But she answered her mother, 'Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
But when this, your daughter, came, who has devoured your living with philanderers, you killed the fattened calf for her.'
"She said to her, 'Daughter, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your sister, was dead, and is alive again. She was lost, and is found.'"