Albert Barnes Commentary Luke 12:18

"And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods." — Luke 12:18 (ASV)

I will pull down my barns. The word barns, here, properly means granaries, or places exclusively designed to store wheat, barley, and so on. They were commonly made, by the ancients, underground, where grain could be kept safer for a long time from thieves and from vermin. If it is asked why he did not let the old ones remain and build new ones, it may be answered that it would be easier to enlarge those already excavated in the earth than to dig new ones.