7. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?
8. I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
9. He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
10. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
11. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.
12. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
13. But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’