“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish.
Parallel translations
- KJV But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
- BSB But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
- NKJV But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.
- NASB 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.
- NLT “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Abraham reminds him of the reversal: he enjoyed good things in life while Lazarus suffered, and now their states are exchanged.
Overview
The point is not that wealth itself damns or poverty saves, but that a life of self-indulgent comfort without faith or mercy ends in loss. Abraham gently but firmly states the justice of the reversal. Earthly ease without God leads to eternal anguish; suffering endured in faith finds comfort.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Luke 6:24“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.
- 1 Jn 2:15Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.
- Ps 17:14from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.
- Mark 9:45If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched —
- Rom 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- Phil 3:19whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
- Ps 37:35–36I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
- Acts 14:22confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom.
- 1 Th 3:3that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.
- Heb 11:25choosing rather to share ill treatment with God’s people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time;
- Job 22:18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
- Lam 1:7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her, The adversaries saw her, they mocked at her desolations.
- Ps 73:12–19Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.
- Luke 16:20A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores,
- Dan 5:22–23You, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this,
- John 16:33I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
- Luke 16:23In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.
- Dan 5:30In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
- Ps 49:11Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves.
- Job 21:13–14They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
- Rev 7:14I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
- Ps 73:7Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 16:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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