Greek word · G2343

θησαυρίζω

thēsaurizō

to store up

To lay up, store, accumulate, save up as a reserve. The related noun is θησαυρός, a storehouse or treasure.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 30, 2026

What it means

θησαυρίζω

[in LXX for צָפַן, etc. ;]

to lay up, store up: of riches, James 5:3; id. with dative of person(s), Luke 12:21, 2 Corinthians 12:14; with accusative of thing(s), 1 Corinthians 16:2; θησαυροὺς ἑαυτῷ, Matthew 6:19-20; pass., 2 Peter 3:7; metaphorically, ὀργὴν ἑαντῷ, Romans 2:5 (cf. Proverbs 1:18, Pss. Pss.Sol 9:9).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: To lay up, store, accumulate, save up as a reserve. The related noun is θησαυρός, a storehouse or treasure.
Against the English: 'Lay up' (KJV, YLT) and 'save up' (BSB, WEB, NIV) are accurate. Paraphrases such as 'provide for' widen it into general support, which changes the meaning of the maxim (see Translations).
Used elsewhere in the period: Matt 6:19–20 ('do not store up treasures on earth'); 1 Cor 16:2 (setting money aside for the collection). Philo states as a 'law of nature' that sons inherit from fathers, not fathers from sons (Life of Moses 2.245).

Range of meaning: Τίθημι: to put or lay down. Θησαυρίζω: to store up, accumulate, lay up a reserve (from θησαυρός, a storeroom, treasure chest or treasure). Παρ᾽ ἑαυτῷ: "beside himself", that is, in his own keeping, at his own house.
Against the English: KJV "lay by him in store" keeps both the "by himself" and the storing. BSB "set aside ... saving it up" keeps the storing but drops "by himself", so the reader cannot tell where the money is kept. Some paraphrases make it sound like an offering handed over each week.
How it drifted: KJV "in store" sounds like "storehouse". Malachi 3:10 ("bring the whole tithe into the storehouse") is often preached alongside this verse, and the phrase drifted toward the idea of giving to a church treasury.
Used elsewhere in the period: Θησαυρίζω appears in Matt 6:19–20 ("do not store up treasures on earth"), Luke 12:21, Rom 2:5 and 2 Cor 12:14 ("parents save up for children"), the closest use in sense. In 2 Cor 12:14 it means ordinary household saving. BDAG gives παρ᾽ ἑαυτῷ as "at one's house" for this verse. Chrysostom (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 43) understood it as saving at home and urged that one's money-box become a little treasury for the poor.

Range of meaning: Thēsauros is a store of valuables and also the place that holds it: a storeroom, chest or treasury (Matt 2:11, the magi open their 'treasure chests'; Matt 13:52, a householder brings things out of his storeroom). The verb thēsaurizō means to gather such a store and keep it, to hoard. It can also be used figuratively for 'storing up' wrath (Rom 2:5) or a reserve for the future (2 Cor 12:14).
Against the English: 'Store up' (BSB) and 'lay up' (KJV, WEB) are accurate. Only YLT's 'Treasure not up… treasures' keeps the Greek echo of verb and noun from the same root. The others lose the rhetorical ring.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) uses the verb for storing goods and for building up good or evil (Prov 2:7; Amos 3:10, 'storing up violence'). Jewish teaching close to Jesus' time already spoke of a treasure kept with God. Tobit 4:8–9 says that giving alms 'lays up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity'. Sirach 29:10–12 urges, 'Lose your silver for the sake of a brother… lay up your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High.' A well-known rabbinic story (Tosefta Peah 4:18) has King Monobaz, who gave away his fathers' treasures in a famine, say: 'My fathers stored up treasures below; I have stored up treasures above.'

Matthew · 2

Matthew 6:19 θησαυρίζετε do store up

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

Here: To build up a store of valuables and keep it. The present tense describes a continuing pattern: making the gathering and keeping of wealth your project.
Matthew 6:20 θησαυρίζετε do store up

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Here: A present-tense command: 'keep on storing up', a habit of life, not a single act. It is the same verb Jesus forbade in v.19; he does not stop the saving instinct, he redirects it.

Luke · 1

Luke 12:21 θησαυρίζων treasuring up

This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Here: A present participle, describing an ongoing habit of piling up and holding goods. It sums up the farmer's plan to pull down his barns and build bigger ones for 'all my grain and my goods' (v. 18). The 'treasure' is stored stock such as grain, not only coins or jewels.

Romans · 1

Romans 2:5 θησαυρίζεις you are treasuring up

But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Here: Present tense: 'you are accumulating'. The process is going on now. The word means laying up treasure, which makes it bitterly ironic after 'the riches of his kindness' in v. 4.

1 Corinthians · 1

1 Corinthians 16:2 θησαυρίζων treasuring up

On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a portion of his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will be needed.

Here: "Storing it up": the small weekly sums pile up into a reserve. The picture is a strongbox or savings jar filling over months.

2 Corinthians · 1

2 Corinthians 12:14 θησαυρίζειν to treasure up

See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Here: Building up a store of wealth, the kind parents pass on to heirs. This is accumulated saving, not everyday care.

James · 1

James 5:3 ἐθησαυρίσατε You have treasured up

Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days.

Here: 'You stored up treasure / you hoarded'. A whole-action past tense (aorist) summing up their way of life. It echoes Jesus' 'do not store up treasures on earth' (Matt 6:19).

2 Peter · 1

2 Peter 3:7 τεθησαυρισμένοι stored up

And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Here: 'Having been put in storage.' A treasury or storehouse image: the world has been laid up and set aside. The perfect tense describes a past act whose result still holds, so the world is in storage now. There is irony too: it is treasured up for burning.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.