16:1  Now He said to the disciples, "There lived a rich man who had a manager, and people reported this manager as squandering his possessions.

16:2  "And he called him and said to him, 'What do I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer serve as my manager.'

16:3  "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master took the management away from me? I do not feel strong enough to dig; I feel ashamed to beg.

16:4  'I know what I shall do, so that when he removes me from the management people will welcome me into their homes.'

16:5  "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

16:6  "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'

16:7  "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.'

16:8  "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age show more shrewdness in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.

16:9  "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

16:10  "He who shows faithfulness in a very little thing remains faithful also in much; and he who shows unrighteousness in a very little thing remains unrighteous also in much.

16:11  "Therefore if you have not acted in a faithful manner in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?

16:12  "And if you have not proved faithful in the use of that which belongs to another, who will give you your own?

16:13  "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will devote himself to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

16:14  Now the Pharisees, who loved money, listened to all these things and scoffed at Him.

16:15  And He said to them, "You justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which men highly esteem God detests.

16:16  "We proclaimed the Law and the Prophets until John; since that time we proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom of God, and everyone forces his way into it.

16:17  "But it would prove easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

16:18  "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who has divorced from a husband commits adultery.

16:19  "Now there lived a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.

16:20  "And a poor man named Lazarus laid at his gate, covered with sores,

16:21  and longing to receive the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

16:22  "Now the poor man died and the angels carried him away to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and people buried him.

16:23  "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, feeling torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.

16:24  "And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I feel agony in this flame.'

16:25  "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he receives comfort here, and you dwell in agony.

16:26  'And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm remains fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not have the ability, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

16:27  "And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house--

16:28  for I have five brothers--in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

16:29  "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

16:30  "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'

16:31  "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not allow themselves to become persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"