In Matthew’s Gospel the repeated contrast in verses 1-18 between reward from men and reward from God leads to this saying; in Luke 12.33 the saying appears in the form of a general command to the disciples to sell their property and give the money to the poor.
On the basis of Aramaic language features, scholars have demonstrated the poetical character of verses 19-21. Verses 19 and 20 each consist of three lines with three stresses in each line, with verse 19 pointing out the wrong way and verse 20 indicating the right way. Verse 21, consisting of one four-stress line, states a general truth and rounds off the structure.
The imperatives in verse 19 are in the plural in contrast to the use of the singular in verse 18; in verse 21 the singular form of “your” is used. However, as indicated earlier, the shifts between singular and plural in the Sermon seem only to deal with the form in which the sayings were originally circulated, and apparently make no exegetical significance.
Do not lay up (Good News Translation “store up”) for yourself treasures on earth is a fairly literal translation of the Greek, as are most other translations. Lay up can also be “gather for yourself.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “Gather no riches here on earth!” The negative command can be translated in a negative or positive form. “You should not store up (or, save)” and “Do not accumulate” are examples of the negative. “Store up for yourself no riches” is an example of a positive command.
Treasures has often been rendered “riches.” It refers to expensive things, wealth, or valuable things that people can own, and it can be translated by any one of these terms.
The word rendered rust is literally “eating.” It may refer to food (John 4.32; 6.27, 55), to a meal (Heb 12.16), or even to the act of eating (Rom 14.17). In the present context it is generally taken to mean “corrosion, rust.” However, the word may refer to an insect, as it does in the Septuagint of Malachi 3.11, where it translates a Hebrew word which Revised Standard Version translates “devourer,” with marginal note “devouring locust.” In the Malachi passage Good News Translation has “insects,” New English Bible “pests,” and New Jerusalem Bible “locust.” In the present passage most modern translations have “rust,” but Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has “worms” (Revised Standard Version alternative rendering), and Jerusalem Bible “woodworms.” But, as scholars note, the impact is essentially the same; “rust” eats away metal, while “worms” eat away cloth.
This sentence also mentions the moth, which is an insect that destroys cloth and similar material. If translators follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation and choose to render “eating” as rust, then valuable items of both metal and cloth are shown to be vulnerable in the verse. This is one reason many translators prefer “rust” to “worm” and have phrases such as “here on earth where things can be destroyed by moths or rust.”
However, if “worm” is used, then the sentence will be “Here on earth, where moths and worms destroy (or, eat things).” As we said, the point is essentially the same with either interpretation.
The word consume (Good News Translation “destroy”) translates the same verb rendered “disfigure” in verse 16. The verb covers a wide range and may mean either “make unrecognizable” or “destroy, ruin.” Consume in this passage is often translated “ruin” or “make so it no longer has value.” In many West African languages the figure of “consume” or “eat” is a natural expression to use here. Another expression that has the sense of destroy in some languages is “spoil.”
Surely every language has a word for thieves. However, there are languages that make distinctions between people who steal in different ways. That is, they use one word for people who steal by using weapons or force, and another for those who break into a house, perhaps still another for someone who uses guile, and so on. Obviously, in this verse translators should use the word that would be appropriate for people who break into houses to steal.
The verb break in is literally “dig through.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “break through the walls,” with a note that the allusion is to the rural Palestinian home where a thief would dig through the wall in order to get into the house (see Job 24.16). The allusion may even be applied to the act of tunneling under a house into the place where the treasure is stored, since the Greek verb used here is related to the Greek noun which means “canal.” The reference may also be to the uncovering of treasure hidden in the ground (see 13.44 and 25.25). Another possibility is that the reference may be that of “forcing a hole through a wall,” either of a house (see 24.43) or, more likely, of a storeroom, where the activity would be less easily noticed. In one standard lexicon the verb is connected with the activity of digging through the “sun-dried brick” wall of a house.
Whatever the exact reference of the word, in this context it seems best to use an expression for forcefully entering a house or building in order to steal, and probably without the owner knowing it. It may be necessary in many languages to add an object for “break in”; for example, “into houses” or “into places where you store things.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .