Text -- Luke 16:3 (NET)

16:3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Luk 16:3

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events in the parable.

² tn Grk “the stewardship,” “the management.”

³ tn Here “dig” could refer (1) to excavation (“dig ditches,” L&N 19.55) or (2) to agricultural labor (“work the soil,” L&N 43.3). In either case this was labor performed by the uneducated, so it would be an insult as a job for a manager.

⁴ tn Grk “I do not have strength to dig; I am ashamed to beg.”

sn To beg would represent a real lowering of status for the manager, because many of those whom he had formerly collected debts from, he would now be forced to beg from.