1 And he said also to [his] disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and he was accused to him as wasting his goods. 2 And having called him, he said to him, What [is] this that I hear of thee? give the reckoning of thy stewardship, for thou canst be no longer steward. 3 And the steward said within himself, What shall I do; for my lord is taking the stewardship from me? I am not able to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I will do, that when I shall have been removed from the stewardship I may be received into their houses. 5 And having called to [him] each one of the debtors of his own lord, he said to the first, How much owest thou to my lord? 6 And he said, A hundred baths of oil. And he said to him, Take thy writing and sit down quickly and write fifty. 7 Then he said to another, And thou, how much dost thou owe? And he said, A hundred cors of wheat. And he says to him, Take thy writing and write eighty. 8 And the lord praised the unrighteous steward because he had done prudently. For the sons of this world are, for their own generation, more prudent than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles. 10 He that is faithful in the least is faithful also in much; and he that is unrighteous in the least is unrighteous also in much. 11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to you the true? 12 and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give to you your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and mocked him. 15 And he said to them, Ye are they who justify themselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what amongst men is highly thought of is an abomination before God. 16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: from that time the glad tidings of the kingdom of God are announced, and every one forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier that the heaven and the earth should pass away than that one tittle of the law should fail. 18 Every one who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery; and every one that marries one put away from a husband commits adultery. 19 Now there was a rich man and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, making good cheer in splendour every day. 20 And [there was] a poor man, by name Lazarus, [who] was laid at his gateway full of sores, 21 and desiring to be filled with the crumbs which fell from the table of the rich man; but the dogs also coming licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. And the rich man also died and was buried. 23 And in hades lifting up his eyes, being in torments, he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he crying out said, Father Abraham, have compassion on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Child, recollect that thou hast fully received thy good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted here, and thou art in suffering. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that those who desire to pass hence to you cannot, nor do they who [desire to cross] from there pass over unto us. 27 And he said, I beseech thee then, father, that thou wouldest send him to the house of my father, 28 for I have five brothers, so that he may earnestly testify to them, that they also may not come to this place of torment. 29 But Abraham says to him, They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them. 30 But he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one from the dead should go to them, they will repent. 31 And he said to him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, not even if one rise from among [the] dead will they be persuaded.
Luke 16 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Lazarus
The poor man covered with sores at the rich man's gate in a parable of Jesus, carried by angels to Abraham's side.
Cited in the guide: Luke 16:20
Cross references (30)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Peter 4:10; Matthew 25:14–30; 1 Corinthians 4:1–2; Luke 12:42; James 4:3
- 2 1 Samuel 2:23–24; Ecclesiastes 11:9–10; Revelation 20:12; 1 Peter 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10
- 3 Proverbs 27:23–27; Jeremiah 5:31; Luke 18:4; 2 Thessalonians 3:11; Proverbs 21:25–26
- 4 James 3:15; Jeremiah 4:22; Proverbs 30:9
- 5 Luke 7:41–42; Matthew 18:24
- 6 Titus 2:10; Luke 16:12; Luke 16:9
- 7 Luke 20:9; Luke 20:12; Song of Songs 8:11–12
- 8 1 Thessalonians 5:5; Ephesians 5:8; John 12:36; Proverbs 6:6–8; Luke 16:10
- 9 Matthew 19:21; 1 Timothy 6:17–19; Daniel 4:27; Matthew 6:24; Proverbs 19:17
- 10 Luke 16:11–12; Matthew 25:21; Luke 19:17; Matthew 25:23; Hebrews 3:2
- 11 Luke 12:33; Proverbs 8:18–19; James 2:5; Ephesians 3:8; Luke 18:22
- 12 Luke 19:13–26; Job 1:21; Matthew 25:14–29; 1 Chronicles 29:14–16; 1 Peter 1:4–5
- 13 1 John 2:15–16; Matthew 6:24; James 4:4; Romans 8:5–8; Luke 14:26
- 14 Luke 23:35; Luke 12:15; Luke 20:47; Isaiah 56:11; Matthew 23:13
- 15 Proverbs 21:2; 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Corinthians 4:5; Jeremiah 17:10; Proverbs 16:5
- 16 Matthew 11:9–14; Matthew 21:32; Acts 3:24–25; Matthew 3:2; John 1:45
- 17 Matthew 5:18; Luke 21:33; 1 Peter 1:25; Isaiah 40:8; Romans 3:31
- 18 Matthew 19:9; Mark 10:11–12; Matthew 5:31–32; 1 Corinthians 7:10–12; 1 Corinthians 7:4
- 19 Ezekiel 16:49; Luke 18:24–25; Amos 6:4–6; James 5:1–5; Ezekiel 27:7
- 20 Acts 3:2; James 2:5; Job 2:7; 1 Samuel 2:8; Psalm 34:19
- 21 Matthew 15:27; Mark 7:28; John 6:12; 1 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Corinthians 11:27
- 22 1 Peter 2:24; Psalm 49:16–19; Revelation 14:13; James 1:11; Matthew 18:10
- 23 2 Peter 2:4; Luke 16:28; Matthew 23:33; Matthew 18:9; Revelation 14:10–11
- 24 Revelation 22:1; John 4:10; John 4:14; Revelation 7:16–17; Matthew 25:41
- 25 Luke 6:24; 1 John 2:15; Psalm 17:14; Mark 9:45; Philippians 3:19
- 26 John 3:36; Psalm 49:14; Psalm 50:22; Malachi 3:18; 2 Thessalonians 1:4–10
- 28 Acts 2:40; Psalm 49:12–13; 1 Thessalonians 4:6; Acts 20:23
- 29 Acts 15:21; Luke 16:16; Luke 24:27; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; 2 Peter 1:19–21
- 30 Revelation 16:9–11; Luke 16:24; Luke 3:8; Luke 13:5; Luke 13:3
- 31 2 Corinthians 4:3; Acts 28:23; John 11:43–53; Acts 19:8; John 12:10–11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Our duty is to give to others the admonitions we have received ourselves. The recent lesson of the Gospel has admonished us to make friends of the mammon of iniquity, that they too may "receive" those who do so "into everlasting habitations." But who are they that shall have everlasting habitations, but the Saints of God?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
… exhibits Abraham as having said to the rich man, with reference to all those who were still alive: "If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, neither, if any one were to rise from the dead and go to them, will they believe him."
These are little things, but "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much." Nor can that possibly be void which proceedeth out of the mouth of Thy Truth.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
And this I say, not that we may omit supplicating the saints, but to hinder our being careless, and entrusting our concerns to others only, while we fall back and slumber ourselves. For so when He said, "make to yourselves friends," he did not stop at this only, but He added, "of the unrighteous mammon;" that so again the good …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
For how can a man become the one servant of two masters, when our Lord says in the Gospels, No man can serve two masters?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)