1. NOW THE tax collectors and [notorious and especially wicked] sinners were all coming near to [Jesus] to listen to Him.
2. And the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering and indignantly complaining, saying, This man accepts and receives and welcomes [preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them.
3. So He told them this parable:
4. What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
5. And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing.
6. And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost.