The Unrighteous Manager

16 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was [a]reported to him as (A)squandering his possessions. And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since my [b]master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to [c]dig; I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ And he summoned each one of his [d]master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred [e]jugs of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred [f]kors of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ And his [g]master complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of (B)this age are more shrewd in relation to their own [h]kind than the (C)sons of light. And I say to you, (D)make friends for yourselves by means of the [i](E)wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it [j]is all gone, (F)they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

10 (G)The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. 11 Therefore if you have not [k]been faithful in the use of unrighteous [l](H)wealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you? 12 And if you have not [m]been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 (I)No [n]servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [o](J)wealth.”

14 Now the Pharisees, who were (K)lovers of money, were listening to all these things and (L)were [p]ridiculing Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are the ones who (M)justify yourselves in the sight of people, but (N)God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.

16 (O)The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John came; since that time (P)the gospel of the kingdom of God [q]has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17 (Q)But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one [r]stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

18 (R)Everyone who [s]divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is [t]divorced from a husband commits adultery.

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Footnotes

  1. Luke 16:1 Or accused
  2. Luke 16:3 Or lord
  3. Luke 16:3 I.e., do manual labor
  4. Luke 16:5 Or lord’s
  5. Luke 16:6 Lit baths, a Heb unit of measure equaling about 9 gallons or 34 liters
  6. Luke 16:7 One kor is about 7.7 cubic feet or 0.22 cubic meters
  7. Luke 16:8 Or lord
  8. Luke 16:8 Lit generation
  9. Luke 16:9 Gr mamonas, for Aramaic mamon (mammon); i.e., wealth, or money
  10. Luke 16:9 Or fails
  11. Luke 16:11 Or proved
  12. Luke 16:11 See note 1 v 9
  13. Luke 16:12 Or proved
  14. Luke 16:13 Or house servant
  15. Luke 16:13 See note 1 v 9
  16. Luke 16:14 Or sneering at
  17. Luke 16:16 Lit is preached
  18. Luke 16:17 I.e., projection of a letter (serif)
  19. Luke 16:18 Or sends away, the Heb term for divorce
  20. Luke 16:18 Or sent away

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