16:1  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 squandering his possessions.

16:2  "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.'

16:3  "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.

16:4  `I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed 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 are more shrewd 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 is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

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

16:12  "And if you have not been faithful in {the use of} that which is another's, who will give you that which is 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 be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

16:14  Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.

16:15  And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

16:16  "The Law and the Prophets {were proclaimed} until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

16:17  "But it is 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 is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

16:19  "Now there was 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 was laid at his gate, covered with sores,

16:21  and longing to be fed with the {crumbs} which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.

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

16:23  "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in 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 am in 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 is being comforted here, and you are in agony.

16:26  `And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, 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 be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"