“The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg.
Parallel Translations
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“The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg.
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The stewarde sayd with in him selfe: what shall I do? for my master will take awaye from me the stewarde shippe. I cannot digge and to begge I am ashamed.
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Then the stewarde saide within himselfe, What shall I doe? for my master taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot digge, and to begge I am ashamed.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to Luke 16:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Esther 6:6 So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?”
- Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, but the desire of the diligent shall be fully satisfied.
- Proverbs 18:9 One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.
- Proverbs 19:15 Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.
- Proverbs 20:4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
- Proverbs 21:25-26 The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. There are those who covet greedily all day long; but the righteous give and don’t withhold.
- Proverbs 24:30-34 I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding: Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction: a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so your poverty will come as a robber and your want as an armed man.
- Proverbs 26:13-16 The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion roams the streets!” As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer with discretion.
- Proverbs 27:23-27 Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds: for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations. The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, the grasses of the hills are gathered in. The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field. There will be plenty of goats’ milk for your food, for your family’s food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.
- Proverbs 29:21 He who pampers his servant from youth will have him become a son in the end.
- Isaiah 10:3 What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
- Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
- Hosea 9:5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?
- Mark 10:46 They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.
- Luke 12:17 He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’
- Luke 16:20 A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores,
- Luke 16:22 The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.
- Luke 18:4 He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man,
- John 9:8 The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?”
- Acts 3:2 A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:11 For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don’t work at all, but are busybodies.
- Proverbs 15:19 The way of the sluggard is like a thorn patch, but the path of the upright is a highway.
- Acts 9:6 But rise up and enter into the city, then you will be told what you must do.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall…
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
Ver. 3. I cannot dig, &c.] They that will get wisdom must both dig and beg, Pro 2:3-4.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then the steward said within himself,.... As the Scribes…
Then the steward said within himself,.... As the Scribes and Pharisees were wont to do, Mat 3:9
what shall I do? he does not say, what will become of me? I am undone, and what shall I do to be saved? or what shall I do for my Lord and Master I have so much injured? or what shall I do to make up matters with him? or what account shall I give? but what shall I do for a maintenance? how shall I live? what shall I do to please men, and gain their opinion and good will, and so be provided for by them? of this cast were the Pharisees, men pleasers, and self-seekers:
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for my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship: the priesthood was changed, and there was a change also of the law; the ceremonial law was abrogated, and the ordinances of the former dispensation were shaken and removed; so that these men must of course turn out of their places and offices:
I cannot dig; or "plough", as the Arabic version renders it; or do any part of husbandry, particularly that which lies in manuring and cultivating the earth; not but that he was able to do it; but he could not tell how to submit to such a mean, as well as laborious way of life; for nothing was meaner among the Jews than husbandry: they have a saying, that , "you have no trade", or business, "lesser", or meaner "than husbandry" (g):
and to beg I am ashamed; for nothing could be more disagreeable, to one who had lived so well in his master's house, and in so much fulness and luxury, as the Scribes and Pharisees did. The Jews have a saying, that (h).
"want of necessaries, , "is better than begging": (and says one) I have tasted the bitterness of all things, and I have not found any thing more bitter "than begging:"''
and which was literally true of the Jews, after the destruction of Jerusalem; when multitudes of them were condemned to work in the mines; and vast numbers were scattered about every where as vagabonds, begging their bread; both which were very irksome to that people: though both these phrases may be mystically understood: and "digging" may intend a laborious searching into the Scriptures, and a diligent performance of good works: neither of which the Pharisees much cared for, though they made large pretensions to both; nor did they dig deep to lay a good foundation whereon to build eternal life and happiness: nor could they attain to the law of righteousness by all their toil and labour, they would be thought to have taken: and for "begging", they were above that: read the Pharisee's prayer in Luk 18:11 and you will not find one petition in it. To ask any thing at the throne of grace, in a way of mere grace and favour, and not merit: or to beg any thing at the hands of Christ, as life, righteousness, pardon, cleansing, healing, food, &c. they were ashamed of, and cared not for.
(g) T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 63. 1. (h) Mischar Hapeninim apud Buxtorf. Florileg, Heb. p. 262.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain To beg I am ashamed - But not ashamed…
To beg I am ashamed - But not ashamed to cheat! This was likewise a sense of honour! "By men called honour, but by angels pride."
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. I cannot dig] He could not submit…
Verse 3. I cannot dig] He could not submit to become a common day-labourer, which was both a severe and base employment: To beg I am ashamed. And as these were the only honest ways left him to procure a morsel of bread, and he would not submit to either, he found he must continue the system of knavery, in order to provide for his idleness and luxury, or else starve. Wo to the man who gets his bread in this way! The curse of the Lord must be on his head, and on his heart; in his basket, and is his store.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Said within himself - Thought, or considered.
Said within himself - Thought, or considered.
My lord - My master, my employer.
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I cannot dig - This may mean either that his employment had been such that he could not engage in agriculture, not having been acquainted with the business, or that he was “unwilling” to stoop to so low an employment as to work daily for his support. “To dig,” here, is the same as to till the earth, to work at daily labor.
To beg - These were the only two ways that presented themselves for a living - either to work for it, or to beg.
I am ashamed - He was too proud for that. Besides, he was in good health and strength, and there was no good reason “why” he should beg - nothing which he could give as a cause for it. It is proper for the sick, the lame, and the feeble to beg; but it is “not” well for the able-bodied to do it, nor is it well to aid them, except by giving them employment, and compelling them to work for a living. He does a beggar who is able to work the most real kindness who sets him to work, and, as a general rule, we should not aid an able-bodied man or woman in any other way. Set them to work, and pay them a fair compensation, and you do them good in two ways, for the habit of labor may be of more value to them than the price you pay them.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain cannot dig . . . to beg, ashamed--therefore, when…
cannot dig . . . to beg, ashamed--therefore, when dismissed, shall be in utter want.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Said within himself—When death approaches the most worldly…
3. Said within himself—When death approaches the most worldly man begins to reflect. But with the Christian all this has been thought of, and the provision made in due time. He has prepared for death before the king of terrors drew near.
I cannot dig—No work or device, no skill of science can postpone the inevitable hour, to make provisions for the better world.
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To beg I am ashamed—To supplicate for life is as useless as it is cowardly. The ear of the destroyer is deaf to all expostulations.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. 1 cannot dig] Rather, to dig I am…
3. 1 cannot dig] Rather, to dig I am not strong enough.
to beg I am ashamed] Sir_40:28, “better die than beg.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.—In…
(3) I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.—In the outer framework of the parable there is something eminently characteristic in this utterance of the steward’s thoughts. He has lost the manliness and strength which would have fitted him for actual labour. He retains the false shame which makes him prefer fraud to poverty. He shudders at the thought that it might be his lot to sit, like Lazarus, and ask an alms at the rich man’s door. Spiritually, we may see what happens to a religious caste or order, like the Pharisees, when it forfeits its true calling by misuse. It has lost the power to prepare the ground for future fruitfulness by the “digging,” which answers, as in Luk_13:8, to the preliminary work of education and other influences that lie outside direct religious activity. It is religious and ecclesiastical, or it is nothing. It is ashamed to confess its spiritual poverty, and to own that it is “poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev_3:17). Anything seems better than either of those alternatives.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain What shall I do? for my lord taketh away…
What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship. This day of dismissal must be prepared for; very carefully, very anxiously, the man who has received the sentence of doom ponders over his future. The lesson of the Master is spoken to all; it is a solemn warning to each of us to see what we can do by way of providing for the inevitable day when we shall find ourselves alone and naked and perhaps friendless in the great, strange world to come. The hero of the parable seems suddenly, after a life of carelessness and thoughtlessness, to have awakened to a sense of his awful danger. So the voice of the real Owner of the goods, which we have so long deluded ourselves into thinking were our own, comes to us, bidding us make ready to give them back again to him, their Owner, and at the same time to render an account of our administration of them. The voice comes to us in the varied forms of conscience, sickness, misfortune, old age, sorrow, and the like; well for us if, when we hear it, we at once determine, as did the steward of the parable, to make a wise use of the goods in our power for the little time they are still left to us to dispose of as we will.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The deliberations with their result:
The deliberations with their result:
v. 3. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my lord taketh away from me the stewardship; I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
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v. 4. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
v. 5. So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
v. 6. And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
v. 7. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and write fourscore.
v. 8. And the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely; for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
The unfaithful steward found himself in a very unpleasant situation, out of which only his wit could extricate him. Jesus reproduces the resulting monolog with realistic faithfulness. The steward was in a quandary, he was racking his brains for some way out of the difficulty. Dismissal under the circumstances meant degradation; no other master would give him a clerical position. He must be content, if he finds work at all, with such as involves little responsibility. His thoughts turn to farming, since his work had brought him into contact with agricultural labor; but he is physically not strong enough to dig, he could never stand that. The other alternative seems to be begging, and to do that he is ashamed. But finally he hits upon a scheme that ought to work. By means of it he hopes, even now yet, either to avert the threatened blow, or, in case he should not succeed in doing this, to provide for himself a comfortable old age. Should he lose his position and be degraded, the people whom he has in mind would be under obligations to take him into their houses. He carries his plan into execution at once. One after the other of his lord’s debtors he summons to the office. Since he still had charge of the whole business, he could easily do this. "These debtors might be farmers, who paid their rents in kind, or persons that had gotten supplies of goods from the master’s stores. " In each case, as he speaks to the individual debtor, he follows the same plan, although only two examples are given. At his direction, they changed or rewrote their bills of indebtedness, putting down a smaller amount than that which had been stipulated or which was due to the owner. One man owed a hundred measures, about seven hundred and fifty gallons, of oil. The amount was changed to read only one-half as much. Another owed one hundred measures, between seven and eight hundred bushels, of wheat. The amount was reduced to eighty. The object of the steward was to meet either contingency. If this scheme would prove successful, the shortage would no longer exist, for the income would appear to have been much smaller than the lord thought. Should the plan be found out, the bills of indebtedness would legally stand, and the debtors would show their gratitude by providing for him. It has even been suggested that the steward had falsified the amounts in the bills of indebtedness originally and pocketed the surplus, and was now returning to the original correct figures. At any rate, it was a clever scheme. Even the master, when he received information concerning this latest trick of the steward, could not withhold a certain commendation. He praised him, not on account of his unfaithfulness and his fraud, but on account of the cleverness in handling the situation and extricating himself out of an unpleasant predicament.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 What should I do ... job?
What should I do ... job?
The manager asks this question of himself, as a means of reviewing his options. AT: "I need to think about what I should do ... job" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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my master
This refers to the wealthy man. The manager was not a slave. AT: "my employer"
I do not have strength to dig
"I am not strong enough to dig the ground" or "I am not able to dig"
when I am removed from my management job
This can be stated in active form. AT: "when I lose my management job" or "when my master takes away my management job" (See: Active or Passive)
people will welcome me into their houses
This implies that those people will provide a job, or other things that he needs to live. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
manager
lord
shame
beg
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 16:3 I’m too proud to beg: The Jewish wisdom…
16:3 I’m too proud to beg: The Jewish wisdom writer Sirach said, “It is better to die than to beg” (Sirach 40:28), a reflection of Jewish attitudes.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.