Luke 18

¹He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray and not give up,

²saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God and didn’t respect man.

³A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’

⁴He wouldn’t for a while; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,

⁵yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’”

⁶The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says.

⁷Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?

⁸I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

⁹He also spoke this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others:

¹⁰“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.

¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men: extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

¹²I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

¹³But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’