Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 16:9

"And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." — Luke 16:9 (ASV)

And I say unto you.—The pronoun is emphatic and stands, as in Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:28; Matthew 5:32, in contrast with what had gone before.

Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.—Regarding “mammon,” compare the note on Matthew 6:24. The word was Syriac in its origin and was also found, as Augustine testifies, in Punic. It was in common use in the Targums or Paraphrases of the Old Testament in our Lord's time for “wealth” or “riches.” Possibly, as stated by Tertullian (whose authority as a Carthaginian carries some weight), it was applied to some Syrian deity who, like the Greek Plutus, was worshipped as wealth personified.

If we admit this view, it explains what is otherwise difficult to explain: St. Luke's introduction of the Syriac word instead of its Greek equivalent. “The mammon of unrighteousness,” the genitive having the same force as in Luke 16:8, is the wealth to which that character generally attaches—wealth wrongly gained and wrongly spent.

And yet “of that mammon”—or better, out of, or with, the mammon—men are to make friends. The right use of wealth in helping the poor, making men happier and better, and leading them to repentance and to God, will gain for us friends: perhaps the very persons whom we have helped, perhaps the angels of God who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth, perhaps even Christ and the Father, who will receive us into everlasting habitations.

That, when ye fail, . . .—The better manuscripts give “that when it fails”—referring to the “mammon,” or riches, on which men set their hearts.

Into everlasting habitations.—Literally, everlasting tabernacles. The word seems chosen in contrast to the “houses” of Luke 16:4, perhaps in contrast to the “booths” of leaves or branches, transitory and withering in a few days, that entered into the ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:40, Nehemiah 8:15), or with the “tents” that were the symbol of the transitory promises of the older Patriarchs (Hebrews 11:9).