Rust (1035) (brosis from bibrosko = to eat) literally means something that eats ("an eating") or gnaws. The main NT use refers to the act of partaking of food (eating) (Ro 14:17, 1Co 8:4, 2Co 9:10, Col 2:16). Brosis can refer to that which one eats (In Lxx - Ge 25:28, Jer 41:20, 2Sa 19:43), and thus can mean a "meal" as in (He 12:16). Jesus uses brosis to mean food but with a figurative meaning in Jn 4:32; 6:27, 55. In Mt 6:19, 20 brosis is used figuratively to describe that which causes erosion or corrosion (Compare the interesting derivation of the English word corrode from Latin rodo = to gnaw.) Strictly speaking rust is the red oxide of iron formed by the corrosion of that metal, but by extension it has come to mean corrosion produced on any metal. The word brosis, while possibly alluding the effects of rusting, also refers to the diseases which attack such wheat, grapes, cucumbers, etc. In no country is the saying "where moth and rust consume" more true than in Syria. Any metal subject to corrosion seems to rust faster in that country than anywhere else. There are also many rusting fungi which the people have not learned to destroy and which do much damage to the crops. Given the fact that wealth in Jesus' day was often measured in grain supplies one owned, the allusion to the destructive effects of various agents (fungi, molds, rats, mice, worms, etc) on the granaries. Brosis - 11x in 10v in the NT and translated by as eating(2), food(6), meal(1), rust(2). Matthew 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; John 4:32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." Comment: For Jesus, doing God’s will is His inner nourishment and should be ours beloved! John 6:27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." John 6:55 "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Comment: In the previous two uses of brosis, Jesus feeding of physical food spoke to the deeper need of man, the need for spiritual food, which nourishes to eternal life and is received by faith in Him ("the Bread of life" - Jn 6:35, 48) Romans 14:17-note for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Comment: The kingdom of God does not consist in observing or not observing days, eating or not eating meats, or any other secondary issues of religious scruples. The kingdom of God is not externals but eternals. What really counts in the kingdom of God is not EXTERNAL REGULATIONS but ETERNAL REALITIES. Are you focusing on the externals of religion or the eternals? Ralph Earle adds that "The principle is clearly stated, though too often forgotten. The kingdom of God, or true religion, is not a matter of externals—how we dress or eat. It is rather "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Those who major on externals are prone not to show a right spirit, nor to maintain peace. And too often their lives do not radiate the joy of the risen Christ." (Earle, R. Word Meanings in the New Testament) 1 Corinthians 8:4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 2 Corinthians 9:10 Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; Colossians 2:16-note Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- Expositor's Greek Testament comments: ‘eating and drinking,’ not food and drink, for which Paul would have used broma and poma. The question is not altogether between lawful and unlawful food, but between eating and drinking or abstinence. Asceticism rather than ritual cleanness is in his mind. The Law is not ascetic in its character, its prohibitions of meats rests on the view that they are unclean, and drinks are forbidden, save in exceptional cases, and then not for ascetic reasons. But these injunctions stand along with ordinances of the Law itself, partly, because they may have been regarded as extensions of its principles, partly, we may suppose, because, like the Law, they were attributed to the angels by the false teachers. Hebrews 12:16-note that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. Brosis - 43 uses in the Septuagint (LXX)- Gen 1:29f; 2:9, 16; 3:6; 9:3; 25:28; 47:24; Lev 7:24; 19:7; 25:7; Deut 32:24; 1 Sam 2:28; 2 Sam 16:2; 19:42; 1 Kgs 19:8; Job 33:20; 34:3; Ps 14:4; 44:11; 53:4; 78:30; 104:21; Isa 55:10; Jer 7:33; 15:3; 19:7; 34:20; Lam 1:11, 19; 4:10; Ezek 47:12; Dan 1:10; Hab 3:17; Mal 3:11; Luke records an example of the ancient association of grain with wealth in Jesus' parable... The land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' And he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?' So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:16-21) Barclay writes that brosis... literally means an eating away, but it is nowhere else used to mean rust. Most likely the picture is this. In the east many a man’s wealth consisted in the corn and the grain that he had stored away in his great barns. But into that corn and grain there could come the worms and the rats and the mice, until the store was polluted and destroyed. In all probability the reference is to the way in which rats, and mice, and worms, and other vermin, could get into a granary and eat away the grain. There was no permanence about possessions like that. The Exegetical Dictionary says that brosis... refers not only to eating as a human activity and consumption by insects, but also the food itself, particularly in John (then in proximity to broma). Especially in John the level of literal meaning is lost, and brosis is used in a fig. sense. In the aphoristic saying in Mt 6:19, 20., brosis, in connection with ses (moth), can only mean eating by insects (cf. Mal 3:11), whose activity works destructively and therefore prohibits the hoarding and collecting of earthly things. (Balz, H. R., & Schneider, G. Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. 1:229. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans)