New Testament in a Year

Visiting Zacchaeus in Jericho

19 Now Yeshua entered Jericho and was passing through. ² And here was a man by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. ³ Zacchaeus was trying to see who Yeshua was, but he couldn’t because of the crowd, for he was short in height. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Yeshua, for He was about to pass through that way.

⁵ When Yeshua came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus hurried and came down and welcomed Him joyfully.

⁷ But when everyone saw it, they began to grumble, saying, “Yeshua has gone to be the guest of a sinner!”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord. “Look, Master, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have somehow cheated anyone, I repay four times as much!”^[a]

⁹ Then Yeshua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this home, because he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

¹¹ As they were listening to this, Yeshua went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem and they supposed that the kingdom of God was about to appear at once. ¹² Therefore He said, “A certain nobleman went to a faraway land to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. ¹³ And calling ten of his own slaves, he gave them ten minas^[b] and said to them, ‘Do business until I come back.’ ¹⁴ But his citizens detested him and they sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this fellow to reign over us!’ ¹⁵ When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he called for those slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much business they had done. ¹⁶ Now the first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your one mina has made ten.’ ¹⁷ The master said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you were faithful with so little, take charge over ten cities.’ ¹⁸ Also, the second slave came, saying, ‘Your mina, Master, made five.’ ¹⁹ Then he also said to this one, ‘You are likewise over five cities.’ ²⁰ But another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina. I was keeping it safe in a handkerchief, ²¹ for I was afraid of you because you are a strict man. You take what you did not make and reap what you did not sow.’ ²² He said to him, ‘By the words of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked slave! You knew that I am strict, taking what I did not make and reaping what I did not sow? ²³ Then why didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I came back I could have collected it with interest?’ ²⁴ Then to the bystanders he said, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ ²⁵ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas!’ ²⁶ ‘I tell you, to everyone who has, more shall be given. But from the one who doesn’t have, even what he does have shall be taken away. ²⁷ But those hostile to me, who didn’t want me to reign over them, bring them here and execute them before me.’”