9. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
10. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
12. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13. "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14. "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."