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The tax-collectors and sinners kept gathering around to hear Yeshua,
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and the P'rushim and Torah-teachers kept grumbling. "This fellow," they said, "welcomes sinners -- he even eats with them!"
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So he told them this parable:
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"If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, doesn't he leave the other ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?
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When he does find it, he joyfully hoists it onto his shoulders;
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and when he gets home, he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Come, celebrate with me, because I have found my lost sheep!'
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I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to God from his sins than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.
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"Another example: what woman, if she has ten drachmas and loses one of these valuable coins, won't light a lamp, sweep the house and search all over until she finds it?
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And when she does find it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, `Come, celebrate with me, because I have found the drachma I lost.'
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In the same way, I tell you, there is joy among God's angels when one sinner repents."
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Again Yeshua said, "A man had two sons.