Luke 16:1-9

The Unrighteous Steward

1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as ¹squandering his possessions.

2 "And he called 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.'

3 "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.

4 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.'

5 "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

6 "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'

7 "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'

8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of ²this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the ³sons of light.

9 "And I say to you, ⁴make friends for yourselves by means of the ⁵wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, ⁶they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Cross References

• 1. Luke 15:13
• 2. Matthew 12:32; Luke 20:34
• 3. John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5
• 4. Matthew 19:21; Luke 11:41; Luke 12:33
• 5. Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:11, 13
• 6. Luke 16:4

Footnotes

• [a] Or "accused"
• [b] Or "lord"
• [c] Or "lord's"
• [d] Gr "baths," a Heb unit of measure equaling about 7 1/2 gal.
• [e] Gr "kors," one kor equals between 10 and 12 bu
• [f] Or "lord"
• [g] Lit "generation"
• [h] Gr "mamonas," for Aram "mamon" (mammon); i.e. wealth, etc., personified as an object of worship