Most translations will start a new sentence here. The but marks a contrast which Good News Translation has indicated by “Instead.”

As indicated in the introduction to this section, this verse states positively what was stated negatively in the preceding verse. One commentator warns that “a man can be just as selfishly and greedily devoted to riches stored up in heaven as to earthly riches.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders the first clause of this verse as “Rather store up riches with God.”

Many languages will do the same as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and render heaven as “God.” There will be cases where the notion of gathering things of value in heaven or with God will not be understood to refer to storing up things of spiritual value. Often in these cases a literal translation makes no sense. (“How can we ask God to store things for us?” people ask.) In such cases translators will have to say something like this: “Instead, the things that should be valuable for you (and which you want a great deal of) are the experiences you have with God in heaven. Moths and rust can’t destroy those and thieves can’t break in and steal them.” However, if at all possible translators should try to retain the figure of “treasures in heaven,” to show the contrast with “earth” in verse 19. Also, Jesus does not indicate here what the treasures in heaven really are.

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 .