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¹ And it came to pass, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him.² And look, there was before him a certain man that had the dropsy.³ And Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?⁴ But they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go.⁵ And he said to them, Which of you shall have a son or an ox fallen into a well, and will not immediately draw him up on a Sabbath day?⁶ And they could not answer again to these things.

⁷ And he spoke a parable to those that were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief seats; saying to them,⁸ When you are bidden of any man to a marriage feast, don't sit down in the chief seat; lest perhaps a more honorable man than you be bidden of him,⁹ and he that bade you and him shall come and say to you, Give this man place; and then you shall begin with shame to take the lowest place.¹⁰ But when you are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place; that when he that has bidden you comes, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher: then you shall have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with you.¹¹ For everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.¹² And he said to him also that had bidden him, When you make a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors; lest perhaps they also bid you again, and a recompense be made you.¹³ But when you make a feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:¹⁴ and you shall be blessed; because they don't have [the means] to recompense you: for you shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just.

¹⁵ And when one of those that sat to eat with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.¹⁶ But he said to him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many:¹⁷ and he sent forth his slave at supper time to say to those that were bidden, Come; for [all] things are now ready.¹⁸ And they all with one [consent] began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must surely go out and see it; I pray you have me excused.¹⁹ And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray you have me excused.²⁰ And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I can't come.²¹ And the slave came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his slave, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and maimed and blind and lame.²² And the slave said, Lord, what you commanded is done, and yet there is room.²³ And the lord said to the slave, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain [them] to come in, that my house may be filled.²⁴ For I say to you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.

²⁵ Now there went with him great multitudes: and he turned, and said to them,²⁶ If any man comes to me, and does not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can't be my disciple.²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross, and come after me, can't be my disciple.²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has [the means] to complete it?²⁹ Lest perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that watch begin to mock him,³⁰ saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.³¹ Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand?³² Otherwise, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an ambassador, and asks the [conditions] of peace.³³ So therefore whoever he is of you that does not renounce all that he has, he can't be my disciple.³⁴ Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt has lost its savor, how shall it be seasoned?³⁵ It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill: [men] cast it out. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.