Topic
Ashes
28 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- 2 Samuel 13:19Easton · ISBE · Nave A symbol of mourning
¶ And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.
- Hebrews 9:13Easton · Smith · Nave Uses of, in purification
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
- Esther 4:3Easton · Nave A symbol of mourning
And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
- Job 2:8ISBE · Nave Sitting in
And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
- Job 42:6ISBE · Nave Repenting in
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
- Jeremiah 6:26Easton · ISBE
¶ O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
- Jonah 3:6ISBE · Nave Repenting in
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
- Genesis 18:27ISBE
And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
- Numbers 19:1–22Smith
And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never…
- Numbers 19:5Easton
And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
- Numbers 19:9Nave Uses of, in purification
And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.
- Numbers 19:10Nave Uses of, in purification
And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.
Show 16 more
- Numbers 19:17 Nave Uses of, in purification
- 1 Kings 20:38 Nave Disguises in
- 1 Kings 20:41 Nave Disguises in
- Nehemiah 9:1 ISBE
- Esther 4:1 Nave A symbol of mourning
- Job 13:12 ISBE
- Job 30:19 ISBE
- Isaiah 44:20 Easton
- Ezekiel 27:30 ISBE
- Ezekiel 27:31 ISBE
- Daniel 9:3 Nave Repenting in
- Hosea 12:1 Easton
- Jonah 3:5 ISBE
- 1 Maccabees 3:47 ISBE
- Matthew 11:21 Nave Repenting in
- Luke 10:13 Nave Repenting in
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 7 references
The ashes of a red heifer burned entire (Num. 19:5) when sprinkled on the unclean made them ceremonially clean (Heb. 9:13).
To cover the head with ashes was a token of self-abhorrence and humiliation (2 Sam. 13:19; Esther 4:3; Jer. 6:26, etc.).
To feed on ashes (Isa. 44:20), means to seek that which will prove to be vain and unsatisfactory, and hence it denotes the unsatisfactory nature of idol-worship. (Comp. Hos. 12:1).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 2 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 13 references
ash'-iz: Among the ancient Hebrews and other Orientals, to sprinkle with or sit in ashes was a mark or token of grief, humiliation, or penitence. Ashes on the head was one of the ordinary signs of mourning for the dead, as when "Tamar put ashes on her head .... and went on crying" (2Sa 13:19 the King James Version), and of national humiliation, as when the children of Israel were assembled under Nehemiah "with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth (ashes) upon them" (Ne 9:1), and when the people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes at the preaching of Jonah (Jon 3:5,6; compare 1 Macc 3:47). The afflicted or penitent often sat in ashes (compare Job 2:8; 42:6: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes"), or even wallowed in ashes, as Jeremiah exhorted sinning Israel to do: "O daughter of my people .... wallow thyself in ashes" (Jer 6:26), or as Ezekiel in his lamentation for Tyre pictures her mariners as doing, crying bitterly and `casting up dust upon their heads' and `wallowing themselves in the ashes' (in their weeping for her whose head was lifted up and become corrupted because of her beauty), "in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning" (Eze 27:30,31). However, these and various other modes of expressing grief, repentance, and humiliation among the Hebrews, such as rending the garments, tearing the hair and the like, were not of Divine appointment, but were simply the natural outbursts of the impassioned oriental temperament, and are still customary among eastern peoples.
Figurative: The term "ashes" is often used to signify worthlessness, insignificance or evanescence (Ge 18:27; Job 30:19). "Proverbs of ashes," for instance, in Job 13:12, is Job's equivalent, says one writer, for our modern "rot." For the ritual use of the ashes of the Red Heifer by the priests, see RED HEIFER.
George B. Eager
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.