Luke 15:1-10

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

15 Now the tax collectors and [notorious and ^[a]especially wicked] sinners were all coming near to [Jesus] to listen to Him.

² And the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering and indignantly complaining, saying, This man accepts and receives and welcomes [^[b]preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them.

³ So He told them this parable:

⁴ What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing.

⁶ And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost.

⁷ Thus, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one [^[c]especially] wicked person who repents (^[d]changes his mind, abhorring his errors and misdeeds, and determines to enter upon a better course of life) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.

⁸ Or what woman, having ten [silver] drachmas [each one equal to a day’s wages], if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and look carefully and diligently until she finds it?

⁹ And when she has found it, she summons her [women] friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the silver coin which I had lost.

¹⁰ Even so, I tell you, there is joy among and in the presence of the angels of God over one [^[e]especially] wicked person who repents (^[f]changes his mind for the better, heartily amending his ways, with abhorrence of his past sins).