The Greek verb episōreuō (ἐπισωρεύω) means to heap up, accumulate, or pile together. It appears in its only NT use in 2 Timothy 4:3, where Paul warns that people will heap up for themselves teachers (episōreusousin heautois didaskalous) who say what their itching ears want to hear. The word vividly depicts the consumer-driven accumulation of theological opinions.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 is Paul's prophetic portrait of the end-times church: a congregation that no longer tolerates sound doctrine but episōreuei — accumulates, piles up — teachers who validate their desires. The shopping metaphor is deliberate and devastating: church becomes a marketplace where ears select pleasing opinions and pile them high like goods in a cart.
This stands in direct contrast to Paul's charge to Timothy: "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching\” (2 Timothy 4:2). The prophet who speaks truth to ears that want comfort faces the constant cultural pressure of episōreuō — the heaping up of alternative voices. Faithfulness to the word requires refusing to be one teacher in a heap.