Luke 14:1-11

1 And it came to pass, on his going into the house of a certain one of the chiefs of the Pharisees, on a sabbath, to eat bread, that they were watching him,

2 and lo, there was a certain dropsical man before him;

3 and Jesus answering spake to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, `Is it lawful on the sabbath-day to heal?'

4 and they were silent, and having taken hold of [him], he healed him, and let [him] go;

5 and answering them he said, `Of which of you shall an ass or ox fall into a pit, and he will not immediately draw it up on the sabbath-day?'

6 and they were not able to answer him again unto these things.

7 And he spake a simile unto those called, marking how they were choosing out the first couches, saying unto them,

8 `When thou mayest be called by any one to marriage-feasts, thou mayest not recline on the first couch, lest a more honourable than thou may have been called by him,

9 and he who did call thee and him having come shall say to thee, Give to this one place, and then thou mayest begin with shame to occupy the last place.

10 `But, when thou mayest be called, having gone on, recline in the last place, that when he who called thee may come, he may say to thee, Friend, come up higher; then thou shalt have glory before those reclining with thee;

11 because every one who is exalting himself shall be humbled, and he who is humbling himself shall be exalted.'