MODERN LITERAL VERSION

15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to him to hear him.
15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man accepts sinners and eats with them.

15:3 And he spoke to them this parable, saying:
15:4 What man out of you*, having a hundred sheep and having lost one out of them, does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness and go after what is lost, until he should find it?
15:5 And when he has found it, he places it upon his shoulders, rejoicing.
15:6 And when he comes to his house, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost.
15:7 I say to you* thus, that there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety nine righteous ones, who need no repentance.

15:8 Or what woman having ten two-denarii coins, if she loses one two-denarii coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek carefully until she should find it?
15:9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and her neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, because I have found the two-denarii coin which I had lost.
15:10 Even so, I say to you*, There becomes joy before the messengers of God over one sinner who repents.

15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons.
15:12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the part of the estate that would be put toward me. And he sections his livelihood to them.
15:13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and went abroad into a far country, and he squandered his estate with riotous living there.
15:14 And when he had spent all, there became a mighty famine throughout that country, and he began to fall-short of things.
15:15 And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his field to feed swine.
15:16 And he desired to fill his belly from the carob pods that the swine ate and no one gave anything to him.
15:17 But when he came to himself he said, How many of my father's hired servants have an abundance of bread? But I am perishing here in famine!
15:18 I will stand up and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned at heaven and in your sight.
15:19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make* me like one of your hired servants.
15:20 And standing up, he came to his father. But while he was afar, distant, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.
15:21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned toward heaven and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son.

15:22 But the father said to his bondservants, Bring out the chief robe and clothe him, and give him a ring *for his hand and shoes *for his feet;
15:23 and bring the fattened calf and sacrifice it and when eating it, we should be joyous.
15:24 Because this one, my son, was dead and is alive again and he was lost and is found. And they began to be joyous.
15:25 Now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard harmony and dancing.
15:26 And he called to him one of the young-servants and inquired what these things might be.

15:27 And he said to him, Your brother is coming, and your father has sacrificed the fattened calf, because he has received him back healthy.
15:28 But he was angry and was not willing to go in and therefore his father came out and encouraged him.

15:29 But answering, he said to his father, Behold, I did serve* you for so-many years, and I never* passed over a commandment of yours, and yet you never* gave me a young goat, that* I might be joyous with my friends.
15:30 But when this your son came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you sacrificed the fattened calf for him.

15:31 And he said to him, Child, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.
15:32 But we ought to be joyous and rejoice, because this one, your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.