13
No long time afterwards the younger son got all together and travelled to a distant country, where he wasted his money in debauchery and excess.
14
At last, when he had spent everything, there came a terrible famine throughout that country, and he began to feel the pinch of want.
15
So he went and hired himself to one of the inhabitants of that country, who sent him on to his farm to tend swine;
16
and he longed to make a hearty meal of the pods the swine were eating, but no one gave him any.
17
"But on coming to himself he said, "`How many of my father's hired men have more bread than they want, while I here am dying of hunger!
18
I will rise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you:
19
I no longer deserve to be called a son of yours: treat me as one of your hired men.'
20
"So he rose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and pitied him, and ran and threw his arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly.
21
"`Father,' cried the son, `I have sinned against Heaven and before you: no longer do I deserve to be called a son of yours.'
22
"But the father said to his servants, "`Fetch a good coat quickly--the best one--and put it on him; and bring a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet.
23
Fetch the fat calf and kill it, and let us feast and enjoy ourselves;