Luke 16:7

Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your bill and write eighty,’ he told him.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The parable’s manager questions a second debtor about his obligation to the master and directs him to reduce the recorded amount. This occurs immediately after the first debtor’s oil debt is adjusted in Luke 16:6.

The words — The Greek verb ὀφείλεις (opheileis) literally means “you owe,” establishing the transaction as a formal liability. The manager’s instruction to write eighty lowers the wheat debt from one hundred measures to eighty.

The thread — The debt-adjustment pattern mirrors the leased vineyard in Song of Solomon 8:11, where tenants pay silver for fruit, and connects to the vineyard tenants in Luke 20:9 and 20:12 who reject the owner’s servants.

Why it lands — The passage records a financial reduction without moral approval, reserving ethical judgment for the master’s commendation in Luke 16:8. A reader must separate the narrative’s description of calculated self-preservation from any prescriptive command to alter debts.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

Luke 20:9 Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time.
Luke 20:12 Then he sent a third, but they wounded him and threw him out.
Song of Solomon 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased it to the tenants. For its fruit, each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver.