The laying up of supplies for future use. Store-cities were used in Egypt (Exod 1:11), where Israelites helped build them. Solomon’s construction program later included store-cities in Israel (1Kgs 9:19; 2Chr 8:4-6; 2Chr 16:4; 2Chr 17:2). We also read of storehouses, which required assigned gatekeepers and watchmen (1Chr 26:15). Stores could be carried off as booty of war (Isa 39:6). Royal storehouses could provide equipment for rescuing a person in trouble (Jer 38:11-13) or they could supply food in times of famine (Gen 41:56); empty storehouses at such times were a disaster (Joel 1:17). The Temple storehouse retained the tithes of the people (Mal 3:10). Storehouses were also coupled with barns as routine equipment for rich people (Luke 12:16-19; Luke 12:24). As for materials kept in storage, references include edible food (Gen 6:21); crops (Luke 12:17); grain (Gen 41:49); wine (2Chr 11:11; 2Chr 32:28); wheat, barley, and oil (Jer 41:8); and iron (1Chr 22:3). People also stored documents (Ezra 6:1); silver, gold, and sacred vessels (2Chr 5:1); and baggage (Isa 10:28). In popular cosmology God’s storehouses held the wind (Ps 135:7; Jer 10:13; Jer 51:16), snow and hail (Job 38:22), and the ocean (Ps 33:7). The very heavens and earth could be stored for the eschatological fire that would judge the “godless” (2Pet 3:7). And in a metaphorical sense, people could store up sin (Hos 13:12) and violence (Amos 3:10) and wrath for days to come (Rom 2:5), or they could store up wisdom (Prov 2:7).
