Matthew Poole and continuators on Luke 16:9

9 And I say unto you, Make to your selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

That by Mammon here is meant Riches, is universally agreed, but whether it Originally be a Chaldaick or Syriack, or [illegible: 2 letters]nick Word is not so well agreed▪ The Chaldee Paraphrast, useth it, Hos. 5.11. But the Heb. there is qu[illegible: 2 letters] otherwise, (according to our Translation) They willingly [illegible: 2 letters]llowed the Commandment. But if the notion of those be [illegible: 1 word], that some of those Nations had an Idol called Mammon, whom they made The God of Riches, answering the Grecian Plutus, it fairly interprets the Chaldee Paraphrast. They followed the command for Idolatry, for such was Iereboam's Commandment, mentioned in that Text, and from thence it might be that the Syrians and Punicks called Riches Mammon. We have the Word in the New Testament four times, thrice in this Chapter, on[illegible: 1 letter]e Matth. 6.24. It is called the Mammon of unrighteousness, by an Hebraism, it is as much as the unrighteous Mammon, by which we must not understand ill gotten Goods, (for God hateth Robery for a Burnt Offering) we must restore such Goods, not make Friends of them: But Riches are so called, because of the Manifold Temptations to Sin, which arise from them, upon which account they are also called Deceitful. But others think that it is so called in opposition to the true Riches, mentioned v. 11. So that the Mammon of unrighteousness, is the Mammon of Falshood, or hurtful Riches, Riches of hurtfulness ([non-Latin text not transcribed] sometimes signifies Hurt or Wrong, and [non-Latin text not transcribed] laedere, nocere.) Of these Riches, which are no true Riches, and which deceive the Soul, and do hurt, and mischief to a Soul, exposing it to Temptation. Christ commands us to make Friends, either, 1. To make God our Friend, not by meriting from him any thing by our disposal of them, but by obedience to his Will in our distribution of them. 2. Or make poor Christians our Friends, so as we may have their Prayers. So that when ye fail, when you dye, when ye fail of any more comfort from them, they may receive you into everlasting Habitations. The Holy Trinity, or the blessed Angels (whose Work it is, as we shall hear) to carry Souls into Abraham's Bosom, may receive you into Heaven,

Marginal references: Mat. 6.19. & 19.21. 1 Tim. 6.17; Or, Riches.