Luke 16:7

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) An hundred measures of wheat.—Here the measure is the Hebrew cor, which is reckoned as equal to ten baths (the latter, however, is a liquid, the former, a dry measure), and accordingly varies, according to the estimate given above, from thirteen to about ninety-seven gallons. One calculation makes it nearly equal to the English “quarter.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:1-12 Whatever we have, the property of it is God's; we have only the use of it, according to the direction of our great Lord, and for his honour. This steward wasted his lord's goods. And we are all liable to the same charge; we have not made due improvement of what God has trusted us with. The steward cannot deny it; he must make up his accounts, and be gone. This may teach us that death will come, and deprive us of the opportunities we now have. The steward will make friends of his lord's debtors or tenants, by striking off a considerable part of their debt to his lord. The lord referred to in this parable commended not the fraud, but the policy of the steward. In that respect alone is it so noticed. Worldly men, in the choice of their object, are foolish; but in their activity, and perseverance, they are often wiser than believers. The unjust steward is not set before us as an example in cheating his master, or to justify any dishonesty, but to point out the careful ways of worldly men. It would be well if the children of light would learn wisdom from the men of the world, and would as earnestly pursue their better object. The true riches signify spiritual blessings; and if a man spends upon himself, or hoards up what God has trusted to him, as to outward things, what evidence can he have, that he is an heir of God through Christ? The riches of this world are deceitful and uncertain. Let us be convinced that those are truly rich, and very rich, who are rich in faith, and rich toward God, rich in Christ, in the promises; let us then lay up our treasure in heaven, and expect our portion from thence.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Measures of wheat - The measure here mentioned - the "kor," or homer - contained, according to the tables of Dr. Arbuthnot, about 32 pecks, or 8 bushels; or, according to the marginal note, about 14 bushels and a "pottle." A "pottle" is 4 pints. The Hebrew "kor," כר kor, or "homer," חמר chomer, was equal to 10 baths or 70 gallons, and the actual amount of the measure, according to this, was not far from 8 gallons. Robinson, Lexicon), however, supposes that the bath was 11 12 gallons, and the kor or homer 14 to 45 bushels. The amount is not material to the proper understanding of the parable.

Fourscore - Eighty.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5-7. fifty … fourscore—deducting a half from the debt of the one, and a fifth from that of the other.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 7 See Poole on "Luke 16:1"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then said he to another, and how much owest thou?.... To my Lord, as before:

and he said, an hundred measures of wheat, or "cors of wheat"; the same with "homers", Ezekiel 45:14 the same quantity as in Ezra 7:22 where, as here, they are called an hundred measures of wheat; and were, as Jarchi on the place observes, "for the meal, or flour offerings": according to the above writer (n), this measure held five bushels, and five gallons; so that the whole was five hundred, sixty bushels, and a half: some make the measure to hold eight bushels and a half; and others, fourteen bushels and a pottle, which greatly increases the quantity.

And he said unto him, take thy bill and write fourscore. The Persic version reads "seventy". Inasmuch now as oil and wheat were things expended in the observance of the ceremonial law, and these men's debts lay in them, it may have regard to the deficiency of the Jews in those things: wherefore by "the bill" may be meant the law; and which is sometimes called by the same name as here, the "writing", or "letter", 2 Corinthians 3:6 and is so called, not merely because it was written in letters; but because it is a mere letter, showing only what is to be done and avoided, without giving strength to perform, or pointing where it is to be had; and it is so, as obeyed by an unregenerate man; and as abstracted from the spirituality of it; and as weak, and without efficacy, to quicken, justify, or sanctify: and whereas the steward, the Scribes and Pharisees, ordered the debtors to write a lesser sum; this may regard the lessening, and even laying aside of many things in the law, after the destruction of the temple; as particularly the daily sacrifice, and other things; see Daniel 9:27 and the doctrine of the Pharisees was always a curtailing of the law, and making less of it than it was; as appears from the glosses they put upon it, refuted by our Lord in Matthew 5:1. They compounded the matter with the people, as some men do now, and taught them, that an imperfect righteousness would do in the room of a perfect one: a doctrine very pleasing to men, and which never fails of gaining an access into the hearts and houses of carnal men; though very injurious to God, and to his divine perfections, particularly his justice and holiness; as the methods this steward took were unjust to his Lord, though very agreeable to his debtors, and were well calculated to answer the end he proposed, an after provision for himself. I am much indebted to a learned writer (o), whose name is in the margin, for several thoughts and hints in the explanation of this parable; and also of that of the rich man and Lazarus, in the latter part of this chapter.

(n) Moses & Aaron, l. 6. c. 9. (o) Teelnianni Specimen Explicat. Parabolarum.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 16:7. ὀγδοήκοντα, eighty, a small reduction as compared with the first. Was there not a risk of offence when the debtors began to compare notes? Not much; they would not look on it as mere arbitrariness or partiality, but as policy: variety would look more like a true account than uniformity. He had not merely to benefit them, but to put himself in as good a light as possible before his master.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. measures of wheat] Not the same word as before, but cors. The cor is believed to be about an English ‘quarter,’ i.e. 8 bushels, but from Jos. Antt. xv. 9, § 92, it seems to have been nearly 12 bushels. The steward knows what he is about, and makes his remissions according to the probabilities of the case and the temperament of the debtor.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 16:7. Σὐ δὲ, but thou) The conjunction indicates, that the steward did not transact business separately with every debtor.

Luke 16:7

Vincent's Word Studies

To another (ἑτέρῳ)

A different one with a different debt, and his circumstances demanding a different rate of discount.

Measures (κόρους)

Cors. A cor was ten baths; the dry and the fluid measures being the same.