Luke 14:12-24

The Parable of the Great Banquet

12 And he also said to the one who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, lest they also invite you [in return], and repayment come to you.

13 But whenever you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

14 and you will be blessed, because they are not able to repay you. For it will be paid back to you at the resurrection of the righteous."

15 Now [when] one of those reclining at the table with [him] heard these [things], he said to him, "Blessed [is] {everyone who} will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"

16 But he said to him, "A certain man was giving a large banquet and invited many.

17 And he sent his slave at the hour of the banquet to say to those who have been invited, 'Come, because now it is ready!'

18 And they all {alike} began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, 'I have purchased a field, and {I must} go out to look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.'

19 And another said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. I ask you, consider me excused.'

20 And another said, 'I have married a wife, and for this [reason] I am not able to come.'

21 And the slave came [and] reported these [things] to his master. Then the master of the house became angry [and] said to his slave, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame!'

22 And the slave said, 'Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.'

23 And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and hedges and press [them] to come in, so that my house will be filled!

24 For I say to you that none of those persons who were invited will taste my banquet!'"