Luke 18:1-13 ▼

1 Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart.

2 He said, |In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people.

3 There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.'

4 For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people,

5 yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.'|

6 And the Lord said, |Listen to what the unrighteous judge says!

7 Won't God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them?

8 I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?|

9 Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.

10 |Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.

12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.'

13 The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!'