The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.

The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for when Jonah preached they did repent, and here is One greater than Jonah.

No one lights a lamp to put it in a cellar or under a bowl, but on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.

So if your whole body has light, without any corner of it in darkness, it will be lit up entirely, as when a lamp lights you with its rays."

When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table.

Better cleanse what is within; then nothing will be unclean for you.

thus you testify and consent to what your fathers did, for they killed and you build.

it was that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world might be charged upon this generation,

from the blood of Abel down to the blood of Zechariah who was slain between the altar and the House of God ??yes, I tell you, it will all be charged upon this generation.

So all you utter in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you whisper in chambers will be proclaimed on the housetops,

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.

Everyone also who says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven for it, but he who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never be forgiven.

When they bring you before synagogues and the magistrates and authorities, do not trouble yourselves about how to defend yourselves or what to say,

for the holy Spirit will teach you at that hour what you should say."

A man out of the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of our inheritance";

So he debated, 'What am I to do? I have no room to store my crops.'

And he said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my granaries and build larger ones, where I can store all my produce and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample stores laid up for many a year; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."'

To his disciples he said, "Therefore I tell you, do not trouble about what you are to eat in life, nor about what you are to put on your body;

Look at the crows! they neither sow nor reap, no storehouse or granary have they, and yet God feeds them. How much more are you worth than birds?

Which of you can add an ell to his height by troubling about it?

Look how the lilies neither spin nor weave; and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his grandeur was never robed like one of them.

only seek his Realm, and it will be yours over and above.

Sell what you possess and give it away in alms, make purses for yourselves that never wear out: get treasure in heaven that never fails, that no thief can get at, no moth destroy.

and be like men who are expecting their lord and master on his return from a marriage-banquet, so as to open the door for him at once when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants whom the lord and master finds awake when he comes! I tell you truly, he will gird himself, make them recline at table, and come forward to wait on them.

Be sure that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

So be ready yourselves, for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

Peter said, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us, or is it for all and sundry?"

The Lord said, "Well, where is the trusty, thoughtful steward whom the lord and master will set over his establishment to give out supplies at the proper time?

But if that servant says to himself, 'My lord and master is long of arriving,' and if he starts to beat the menservants and maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk,

that servant's lord and master will arrive on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know; he will cut him in two and assign him the fate of unbelievers.

whereas he who was ignorant and did what deserves a beating, will receive few lashes. He who has much given him will have much required from him, and he who has much entrusted to him will have all the more demanded of him.

I have come to throw fire on earth. Would it were kindled already!

I have a baptism to undergo. How I am distressed till it is all over!

You think I am here to make peace on earth? No, I tell you, it is dissension.

After this there will be five at issue in one house, three divided against two and two against three,

And to the crowds he said, "When you see a cloud rise in the west, you say, 'There is a shower coming,' and so it is:

when you feel the south wind blow, you say, 'There will be heat,' and so it is.

You hypocrites, you know how to decipher the look of earth and sky; how is it you cannot decipher the meaning of this era?

And why do you not yourselves settle what is right?

I tell you, you will never get out till you pay the last farthing of your debt."

It was at this time that some people came to tell him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

Or those eighteen men killed by the fall of the tower at Siloam? do you think they were worse offenders than the rest of the residents in Jerusalem?

And he told this parable. "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; he came in search of fruit on it but he found none.

So he said to the vinedresser, 'Here have I come for three years in search of fruit on this fig tree without finding any; cut it down, why should it take up space?'

But the man replied, 'Leave it for this year, sir, till I dig round about it and put in manure.

Then it may bear fruit next year. If not, you can have it cut down.'"

But the president of the synagogue was annoyed at Jesus healing on the sabbath, and he said to the crowd, "There are six days for work to be done; come during them to get healed, instead of on the sabbath."

The Lord replied to him, "You hypocrites, does not each of you untether his ox or ass from the stall on the sabbath and lead it away to drink?

So he said, "What is the Reign of God like? to what shall I compare it?

It is like a grain of mustard-seed which a man took and put into his orchard, where it grew up and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted in its branches."

He added, "To what shall I compare the Reign of God?

It is like dough which a woman took and buried in three pecks of flour, till all of it was leavened."

A man said to him, "Is it only a few, sir, who are saved?" So he said to them,

once the master of the House has got up and closed the door. You may stand outside and knock at the door, crying, 'Lord, open for us,' but he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.'

You will then proceed to say, 'But we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets!'

Yes, and people will come from east and west and north and south to their places at the feast within the Realm of God.

"Go and tell that fox," he replied, "I cast out daemons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and on the third day I complete my task!

But I must journey on, to-day, to-morrow, and the next day; it would never do for a prophet to perish except in Jerusalem!

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, slaying the prophets and stoning those who have been sent to you! How often I would fain have gathered your children as a fowl gathers her brood under her wings! But you would not have it!

so Jesus asked the jurists and Pharisees, "Is it right to heal on the sabbath or not?"

"Which of you," he said to them, "when an ass or an ox has fallen into a well, will not pull him out at once upon the sabbath day?"

He also told a parable to the guests, when he observed how they picked out the best places.

Then you will be blessed; for as they have no means of repaying you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

At the hour for supper he sent his servant to tell the guests, 'Come, things are all ready.'

But they all alike proceeded to decline. The first said to him, 'I have bought a farm and I am obliged to go and look at it. Pray consider me excused.'

The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house was enraged, and said to his servant, 'Quick, go out to the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame.'

When the servant announced, 'Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is still room,'

the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the roads and hedges and make people come in, to fill up my house.

For which of you wants to build a tower and does not first sit down to calculate the expense, to see if he has enough money to complete it? ??29 in case, after he has laid the foundation and then is unable to finish the building, all the spectators start to make fun of him,

saying, 'This fellow started to build but he could not finish it.'

Or what king sets out to fight against another king without first sitting down to deliberate whether with ten thousand men he can encounter the king who is attacking him with twenty thousand?

If he cannot, when the other is still at a distance he will send an embassy to do homage to him.

Salt is excellent indeed: but if salt becomes insipid, what will restore its flavour?

It is no use for either soil or dunghill, it is flung out. He who has an ear let him listen to this."

"Which of you with a hundred sheep, if he loses one, does not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one till he finds it?

When he finds it he puts it on his shoulders with joy,

Or again, suppose a woman has ten shillings. If she loses one of them, does she not light a lamp and scour the house and search carefully till she finds it?

And when she finds it she gathers her women-friends and neighbours, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the shilling I lost.'

But when he came to his senses he said, 'How many hired men of my father have more than enough to eat, and here am I perishing of hunger!

But the father said to his servants, 'Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him, give him a ring for his hand and sandals for his feet,

and bring the fatted calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry;

Now his elder son was out in the field, and as he came near the house he heard music and dancing;

so, summoning one of the servants, he asked what this meant.

This angered him, and he would not go in. His father came out and tried to appease him,

but he replied, 'Look at all the years I have been serving you! I have never neglected any of your orders, and yet you have never given me so much as a kid, to let me make merry with my friends.

So he summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Hand in your accounts; you cannot be factor any longer.'

The factor said to himself, 'What am I to do, now that my master is taking the factorship away from me? I am too weak to dig, I am ashamed to beg.

Ah, I know what I will do, so that people will welcome me to their houses when I am deposed from the factorship.'

'A hundred barrels of oil,' he said. The factor told him, 'Here is your bill; sit down at once and enter fifty barrels.'

Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' 'A hundred quarters of wheat,' he said. 'Here is your bill,' said the factor, 'just enter eighty.'

And I tell you, use mammon, dishonest as it is, to make friends for yourselves, so that when you die they may welcome you to the eternal abodes.

And if you are not faithful with what belongs to another, how can you ever be given what is your own?

Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.

So he told them, "You are the people who get men to think you are good, but God knows what your hearts are! What is lofty in the view of man is loathsome in the eyes of God.

Yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for an iota of the Law to lapse.

and fain to eat up the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. (The very dogs used to come and lick his ulcers.)

Now it happened that the poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man died too, and was buried.

so he called out, 'Father Abraham, take pity on me, send Lazarus to dip his fingertip in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in these flames.'