:15 'iniquity to remembrance' is quoted Hebrews 10:3. Whilst Hebrews 10 is using the context of the sacrifices on the day of atonement the use of Numbers 5:15 is relevant. Those who were going back to the law were forsaking their new husband to return to the law - see Romans 7:1-4

5:23    The priest was to ‘blot’ the curses out of the book.  The same word is employed in Prov 6:33 as ‘wiped’ – notice the similarity of context. The provision of the law of Moses in this chapter was not to be taken as a licence for sinfulness.

5:2-4  That Israel were commended to put the leper outside the camp – and that they did this at the point in time indicates that Israel had not heeded what they had been told in Leviticus – unless this command in Numbers was given before the law was given at Sinai.

5:18 In 1Cor 11:16 Paul draws upon the shameful uncovering of the woman here.

We saw in Num. 5 that the woman who committed adultery brought death on herself and her accomplice.  This physical situation underscores a greater spiritual application.
The wayward, adulterous wife of v.16-19 is synonymous with the seductive forces which turn one from serving the LORD. This is spiritual adultery, which is idolatry (Col 3:5). The end for such participants is death.  The cry is to hold fast to the wisdom of the LORD (v. 2,20) to prevent straying in order to gain life (see Rev 2:25).

In this chapter we see men invited to seek wisdom because it teaches those principles by which they may obtain God's guidance and avoid the society and influence of the wicked, whose pernicious courses are described.

2:14  The way in which the wicked ‘rejoice to do evil’ is used by Jeremiah – 11:15  – to speak of how Judah was behaving in his day.

2:10 Notice that ‘wisdom’ is associated with the ‘heart’. Whist one must know – that is have head knowledge – it only is translated into ‘wisdom’ when it affects one’s emotions

V.4 - Putting together Peter Forbes 2003 comments with Michael Parry's 2005 comments we have "hid treasures" as an understanding of the gospel message (Matt 13:44) and "silver" (perhaps connected to this understanding and acceptance of the gospel message) and referring to redemption, grace and mercy (much as the number 5) which is the believer's hope when Christ returns to the earth.

V.6 - We are encouraged to ask for wisdom and it will be given generously (James 1:5).

2:18 That the woman’s home ‘inclineth unto death’ is an idea which recurs in Proverbs. See Prov 5:5, 7:27

2:3 The ‘son’ should ‘cry’ after knowledge. The woman called wisdom woman also ‘cries’ – Prov 1:2. So we see the faithful son and the wise woman actually communicate with each other. So should be our response to the word of God.

2:16 We can see that the wise woman cries to those who would listen – Prov 1:21 and now we see another woman calling to the son. The strange woman also raises her voice. We need to take care as to who we listen to.

We need to listen in order to get wisdom (v2 and v6)  We need to search out knowledge (v3).  Both these come only from God and if we put effort into acquiring them, it will result in understanding.  The word understand or understanding occurs six times in the first eleven verses of this chapter.  It's the logical consequence of obtaining the other two and will mean that we understand righteousness, judgment, equity - every good path (v9)  Our understanding will keep us (v11).

The juxtaposition of knowledge, wisdom and understanding is a recurrent theme, particularly in these early chapters of the book of Proverbs. 

16:14 That the Pharisees 'derided' Jesus is not surprising. It is the normal response to someone who points out something we do not like. Rather than acknowledge the criticism we attempt to 'rubbish' the person making the observation - Character assassination, we call it today. It should not be the way that the servant of God behaves.

They should act consistently with what they professed.  (verse 8) 
The steward was commended, not for acting dishonestly, (that is unjustly), but for acting shrewdly (that is consistently).  He wanted to secure his future in this world, and he did everything within his power to do so.  Jesus provided the comparison for his disciples, contrasting the position of the unjust steward with the “children of light”, (Compare - Ephesians 5:8)  who say their interest is in the world to come.  But they sometimes act as if their main interest is in this world.  The unjust steward was at least consistent.
Possessions are to be held in trust, and must be used to make true friends (verse 9). 
If a servant of Christ does possess worldly wealth (“the mammon of unrighteousness), he must use it as held by him in trust from God.  By using it in accordance with the terms of such trust, he would make “friends” of God and His Son.  Such a friendship will endure beyond death, and with the coming of the Kingdom will mean “eternal dwellings” for the truly faithful stewards. (Compare John 15:14)
Unfaithful use of riches shows unfitness for immortality. (verses 10-12) 
A man’s control of worldly possessions, “the unrighteous mammon”, lasts as long as he lives.  His “stewardship” in material things is very limited.  On the other hand, immortality, once given, is “your own” forever.  Jesus’ point was a simple one.  If disciples are not faithful in the discharge of a temporary stewardship, how could they qualify to receive a permanent one? ·    
Divided service is impossible.  (verse 13) 
A slave belonged absolutely to his master.  The word “serve” used by Jesus means “to be a slave”.  No man can serve as a slave to both God and mammon.  Slavery was all demanding, and the demands of God and mammon are mutually exclusive, or opposed to each other.  Service to God demands the whole person.  It is a full time job. 

At this point, the Pharisees,  who were “lovers of money” could stand it no longer.  They broke into the Master’s discourse and scoffed at him.  (verse 14)  Instantly, he accepted the challenge, showing them that the unjust steward portrayed their own dishonesty exactly:

The Pharisees justified themselves before men. (verse 15) 
It was not God they served but men, whose favor they sought.
They were already “dismissed”. 
They would no longer be stewards.(vs. 16).  No matter how they might try to retain their power and prestige, it was useless.  John’s coming had signaled the end of the era of the Law,  within the context of which they sought to retain their power.  Now people were crowding in to listen to earth’s coming King. 
Their “discounting” of God’s Law would not be accepted anyway.  (verses 17,18)  Jesus finally gave a specific illustration of the work of these “unjust stewards”.  As an example, their treatment of Moses’ regulation of divorce gave the people license to divorce at the slightest whim.  This was an attempt to involve the people in their own blind failings, so that, being themselves corrupted, the people could hardly ask for removal of stewards who were just as corrupt as themselves.  The Pharisees discounted God’s laws in the same manner in which the unjust steward discounted the debts.  Although the master acknowledged the worldly shrewdness of his steward  in obtaining the support and favor of others,  he was still going to be dismissed from his position.
Jesus had called the Pharisees, “uncaring shepherds”, “careless householders”, “prodigal sons” and “unjust stewards” - but more was to come.

Rich Man and Lazarus - Luke 16:19-31
The Scribes and Pharisees had forgotten that they were God’s stewards.  They saw themselves as the rich man himself, instead of being his stewards.  They hoarded the Law and the Prophets to themselves.  So Christ presents them as a rich man who, thoroughly deceived, spends “his” riches on himself and does not remember whose they are until it is too late. 

A “leper being licked by dogs” (for the word “sores”  in verse 20 is the wound of leprosy),  was the Pharisees’ view of Christ surrounded by Publicans and Sinners. (Luke 15:1, 2)  Publicans were tax-gatherers for Rome, no better in the Pharisees’ opinion then Gentiles, whom Jews referred to as “dogs”.  (Mark 7:27)  Christ being regarded by the Pharisees as a leper provides an echo from the Prophet Isaiah:

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”.  (Isaiah 53:4)

Christ presents the dead as speaking in this parable.  His words are an ironic thrust at the terrifying scary tales with which the Pharisees described the pains of “hell”, compared with the joys of “heaven”.  They used these in maintaining influence over the people.  

Jesus obviously did not support their views, as shown in the record of his activity in raising the real Lazarus from the dead.   If  he did, he would not have wept at Lazarus’ death, nor would his comfort of Lazarus’ relatives be considered in terms of hope in the resurrection. ( John 11:23-26 )  Nor would Lazarus have been pleased in being called back from such bliss.

But the Pharisees taught these things, which they had absorbed from Greek Culture.  Josephus, a Pharisee of the next generation, provides a very detailed and vivid description of their view of Hades.  It bears a strong relationship to the Greek mythological view regarding the afterlife and parallels phrases and the picture presented by Christ in this parable.

So Christ portrays their dismay, when, personified as the dead rich man, they gaze across from Hades to see Lazarus, not only in Abraham’s company, but in his bosom.  He was Abraham’s special friend. (Compare John 13:25)

Nowhere does the Scripture present a literal picture of a heaven and a hell from which the occupants of each can view and talk to each other, let alone send someone from heaven to hell with a drop of water to cool the tongue of a sinner burning and suffering in intense fire. 
To further support the fact that this is a parable, we have Jesus’ own words that “…no one has ascended into heaven,…” (John 3:13).   As a further demonstration of this, we have the words of the writer to the letter to the Hebrews, providing a list of faithful people throughout history who had died in faith.  Abraham was included in that list.  It was stated of these people, years after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, that:

“And all these having gained approval through their faith, did notreceive what was promised, Because God had provided something better for us, so that apart fromus they should not be made perfect”.Hebrews 11:39, 40

Coming back to the parable, we see that the rich man pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus back to his surviving relatives:“…But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!”Luke 16:30

But Abraham, “a faithful rich man”, refuses:“If they did not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither willthey be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” Luke 16:31

This was a crushing statement to the sneering Pharisees and a foreshadow of condemnation to them.  For Christ did raise a real Lazarus from the dead, and the Scribes and the Pharisees did not repent.  Nor did they, in general, repent when he Himself was raised from the dead.  They not only, in their minds,  “needed no repentance” (Luke 15:7), they would not even be convinced of their need by a resurrection of the dead.
But the Publicans and Sinners pressing around Jesus to hear him, had obviously been convinced of their need and thus were in the way of salvation.  Not only so, but, as “dogs”, the Publican and Sinners in pressing around the Master to hear him speak, were actually helping him endure the trial that his role as Saviour brought upon him. 
{from the Life of Christ Seminar}

V.10 If you do not have respect for whatever is small; you are not worthy to handle the big things in life.

16:10  The faithfulness that Jesus spoke about was not the faithfulness of the steward in the arrangements he made. Rather because he could not be faithful in the little thing which had been committed to him he would not have any greater thing committed to him.

16:10 The idea of the one who is faithful in little being blessed is developed by Jesus only a few chapters further on – Luke 19:17

16:13  The quotation from Matt 6:24– the sermon on the mount ‘no servant … and mammon’ highlights that the teaching of Jesus is not just theory. It should inform us in the way that we should live.

The Just Steward

The law says that if your brother owes you what he cannot repay, you should help him and provide for him (Lev 25:35-43). God provided the year of Jubilee to make sure that people were released from debts (Lev 25:54-55). So the steward had a choice to make. Either obey his money master (Mammon v13) or his true Master (God). The man in the parable chose to obey God. This is why in v13 Jesus concludes "you cannot serve two masters"; either accounting to money or to God. So we shouldn't use this parable to exhort each other to be careful with money. In v15 he says "what is highly esteemed among men.." (namely the exact accounting and extraction of debts) "..is an abomination in the sight of God".

How often, in the daily outworking of our duties, do we inadvertently transgress God's commandments in the guise of: "I was just doing my job"?

16:11 We might think that the mundane day to day things of our lives and work are not really related to the things of the kingdom of God. However Jesus teaches very powerfully that they are. Unless we can implement the principles of the gospel in our daily lives and dealings with others we will not be n the kingdom of God.