Chapter 16

¹And he said to his disciples,

“There was a rich man who had a manager, and it was reported to him that this man was squandering his property. ²So he called him in and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Make an accounting for your conduct of my affairs, for you cannot be manager any longer!’ ³Then the manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do, because my master is going to take my position away from me? I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position people will take me into their homes.’ ⁵Then he called in each of his master’s debtors, and he said to the first one, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘Eight hundred gallons of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Here is your agreement; sit right down and write four hundred!’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He answered, ‘Fifteen hundred bushels of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your agreement; write twelve hundred.’ ⁸And his master praised the dishonest manager, because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are shrewder in their relation to their own age than the sons of the light. ⁹So I tell you, make friends for yourselves with your ill-gotten wealth, so that when it fails, they may take you into the eternal dwellings. ¹⁰The man who can be trusted in a very small matter can be trusted in a large one, and the man who cannot be trusted in a very small matter cannot be trusted in a large one. ¹¹So if you have proved untrustworthy in using your ill-gotten wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have been untrustworthy about what belonged to someone else, who will give you what belongs to you? ¹³No servant can belong to two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will stand by one and make light of the other. You cannot serve God and money!”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were avaricious, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. ¹⁵And he said to them,

“You are the men who parade your uprightness before people, but God knows your hearts. For what men consider great is detestable in the sight of God. ¹⁶Until John came, it was the Law and the Prophets. From that time the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone has been crowding into it. ¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dotting of an i in the Law to go unfulfilled. ¹⁸Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman who has been divorced from her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹“There was once a rich man, who used to dress in purple and fine linen, and to live in luxury every day. ²⁰And a beggar named Lazarus was put down at his gate covered with sores ²¹and eager to satisfy his hunger with what was thrown away from the rich man’s table. Why, the very dogs came and licked his sores. ²²And it came about that the beggar died and was carried away by the angels to the companionship of Abraham, and the rich man too died and was buried. ²³And in Hades he looked up, tormented as he was, and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus beside him. ²⁴And he called to him and said, ‘Father Abraham! take pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in torment, here in the flames!’ ²⁵And Abraham said, ‘My child, remember that you received your blessings in your lifetime, and Lazarus had his misfortunes in his; and now he is being comforted here, while you are in anguish. ²⁶Besides there is a great chasm set between you and us, so that those who want to go over from this side to you cannot, and they cannot cross from your side to us.’ ²⁷And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, ²⁸for I have five brothers; let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torture.’ ²⁹Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.’ ³⁰But he said, ‘No! Father Abraham, but if someone will go to them from the dead, they will repent!’ ³¹He answered, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead!’ ”