1 And it came to pass, on his going into the house of a certain one of the chiefs of the Pharisees, on a sabbath, to eat bread, that they were watching him, 2and lo, there was a certain dropsical man before him; 3and Jesus answering spake to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful on the sabbath-day to heal?’ 4and they were silent, and having taken hold of him, he healed him, and let him go; 5and answering them he said, ‘Of which of you shall an ass or ox fall into a pit, and he will not immediately draw it up on the sabbath-day?’ 6and they were not able to answer him again unto these things.

7 And he spake a simile unto those called, marking how they were choosing out the first couches, saying unto them, 8‘When thou mayest be called by any one to marriage-feasts, thou mayest not recline on the first couch, lest a more honourable than thou may have been called by him, 9and he who did call thee and him having come shall say to thee, Give to this one place, and then thou mayest begin with shame to occupy the last place.

10 ‘But, when thou mayest be called, having gone on, recline in the last place, that when he who called thee may come, he may say to thee, Friend, come up higher; then thou shalt have glory before those reclining with thee; 11because every one who is exalting himself shall be humbled, and he who is humbling himself shall be exalted.’ 12And he said also to him who did call him, ‘When thou mayest make a dinner or a supper, be not calling thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kindred, nor rich neighbours, lest they may also call thee again, and a recompense may come to thee; 13but when thou mayest make a feast, be calling poor, maimed, lame, blind, 14and happy thou shalt be, because they have not to recompense thee, for it shall be recompensed to thee in the rising again of the righteous.’