1 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.