1 And He also said to His disciples, “A certain man was rich, who had a steward, and he was accused to him as scattering his goods; 2 and having called him, he said to him, What [is] this I hear about you? Render the account of your stewardship, for you may not be steward any longer. 3 And the steward said in himself, What will I do, because my lord takes away the stewardship from me? I am not able to dig, I am ashamed to beg— 4 I have known what I will do, that, when I may be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me to their houses. 5 And having called near each one of his lord’s debtors, he said to the first, How much do you owe to my lord? 6 And he said, One hundred baths of oil; and he said to him, Take your bill, and having sat down write fifty. 7 Afterward to another he said, And you, how much do you owe? And he said, One hundred cors of wheat; and he says to him, Take your bill, and write eighty. 8 And the lord commended the unrighteous steward that he did prudently, because the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of the light in respect to their generation. 9 And I say to you, make to yourselves friends out of the wealth of unrighteousness, that when you may fail, they may receive you into the continuous dwelling places. 10 He who is faithful in the least, [is] also faithful in much; and he who in the least [is] unrighteous, is also unrighteous in much; 11 if, then, in the unrighteous wealth you did not become faithful—who will entrust to you the true? 12 And if in the other’s you did not become faithful—who will give to you your own? 13 No servant is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one, and he will love the other; or one he will hold to, and of the other he will be heedless; you are not able to serve God and wealth.” 14 And also the Pharisees, being lovers of money, were hearing all these things, and were deriding Him, 15 and He said to them, “You are those declaring yourselves righteous before men, but God knows your hearts; because that which is high among men [is] abomination before God; 16 the Law and the Prophets [are] until John; since then the good news of the Kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone presses into it; 17 and it is easier for the heaven and the earth to pass away, than one tittle to fall of the Law. 18 Everyone who is sending his wife away, and marrying another, commits adultery; and everyone who is marrying her sent away from a husband commits adultery. 19 And—a certain man was rich, and was clothed in purple and fine linen, making merry sumptuously every day, 20 and there was a certain poor man, by name Lazarus, who was laid at his porch, full of sores, 21 and desiring to be filled from the crumbs that are falling from the table of the rich man; indeed, also the dogs, coming, were licking his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the messengers into the bosom of Abraham—and the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 and having lifted up his eyes in Hades, being in torments, he sees Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom, 24 and having cried, he said, Father Abraham, deal kindly with me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and may cool my tongue, because I am distressed in this flame. 25 And Abraham said, Child, remember that you received your good things in your life, and Lazarus in like manner the evil things, and now he is comforted, and you are distressed; 26 and besides all these things, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that they who are willing to go over from here to you are not able, nor do they pass through from there to us. 27 And he said, I ask, then, father, that you may send him to the house of my father, 28 for I have five brothers, so that he may thoroughly testify to them, that they also may not come to this place of torment. 29 Abraham says to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them; 30 and he said, No, father Abraham, but if anyone from the dead may go to them, they will convert. 31 And he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one may rise out of the dead.”
Luke · Literal Standard Version
Luke 16 Literal Standard Version
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)