Hidden Meaning of Dust and Ashes —

In my studies this week, I came across, what I think, is a fascinating typological parallel. To “repent in dust and ashes” is now an iconic Biblical symbol and saying. Spoken of by the prophets like Abraham, Job, and Ezekiel, we see them repent or liken themselves to nothing more than dust and ashes (Genesis 18:27; Job 30:19, 42:6; Ezekiel 27:30). While it’s often chalked up as a cultural mourning ritual of expressing remorse, sorrow, lowliness, and humility, in this entry I want to focus on the prophetic significance of each symbol, given the eschatological undercurrent of repentance that abounds Scripture.

Dust

God draws the first prophetic relationship between ground and dust in Genesis 2:7 when he forms man from “the dust of the ground” and then strengthens this relationship in Genesis 3:19, “for dust you are and to dust you will return”. When we take into account the Biblical history of mankind as one people coming from Adam (āḏām), translatable as “ground” or “soil of the earth” (ăḏāmâ in Hebrew, אדמה), God paints an intriguing word picture. He uses the earthly elements, specifically dust, to express mankind as a vast whole across the ages. In Genesis 28:14, He broadens this relationship by likening Abraham’s promised descendants to the “dust of the earth” and the “sand of the seashore” (Genesis 22:17, 32:12, 41:49; 2 Chronicles 1:9).

It’s a no brainer that dust is from the ground, but the etymological choice, here, is intentional: Dust (as well as sand) is a vast collection of small, granular particles with no value or usefulness, whereas ground like soil, mud, and clay is clumpier, less discrete, and can be useful for planting crops and trees, making bricks and pottery, and so on. The functional difference between these kinds of earth is no secret, of course, and it carries over into prophetic etymology. Besides dust representing humanity across time, it also refers to futility, worthlessness, mortality, and death (Ecclesiastes 3:20, 12:7; Job 17:16, 21:26; Daniel 12:2). We see the Gentile prophet Job and his friends as well as kings, judges, prophets, and commoners of Israel sit, sprinkle, roll, or cover themselves in dust or earth (Joshua 7:6; Job 2:12, 42:6; 1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 15:32; Nehemiah 9:1). When we see ancient cultures repent in dust, they do so to acknowledge that they can (and will) be reduced to dust, binding back the consequence of Genesis 3:19.

“Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:6

Covering dust over oneself is a public declaration that they are a dead man walking, so to speak, acknowledging their inability, mortality, shame, or worthlessness in the world as well as repenting and turning from their evil ways: sins, trespasses, iniquity, and all sorts of wrongdoing–––the old self is dead, nothing but dust. Once the dust is washed off by water, a new man is restored out of the dust into a way of life, an outward expression of repentance reflecting an inward reality. This dust-to-dust understanding is both practical and prophetic (Job 34:15) and seems to also be why the apostles could use it as a sign of looming judgment (Luke 9:5, 10:11; Acts 13:51, 22:22-23; Revelation 18:19; see also Deuteronomy 28:24).

This adds further insight into the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders, when Jesus likens a person’s belief and behaviour to a man “who built his house on the sand”, He binds back the prophetic usage of sand or dust as mankind, meaning to build your life, belief, attitude, and behaviour on the “tradition of men [dust, sand]” is not only foolish but foundationless, so that during times of trouble or judgment, the house will fall. The house is not built to last because it is not built on the everlasting (Matthew 7:24-27; Mark 7:8).

While the word dust carries significant prophetic symbolism throughout Scripture, what I often overlooked was the meaning of ashes. If dust covers the meaningful spirit behind repentance, why repent in ashes, too?

Ashes

In Hebrew, the words “dust” (ʿāp̄ār) and “ashes” (ēp̄er) form of synophone, two words that have different spellings and meanings, but sound and look similar. The fact that they are used together is no coincidence. Apart from this kind of wordplay binding the two words together conceptually, sharing the same meanings of futility, worthlessness, mortality, and death, the primary difference between dust and ashes is often found in its immediate context as a cultural symbol and response concerning imminent destruction, or as the aftermath of having just been destroyed (Jonah 3:6; Esther 4:1-3; Job 2:8; Isaiah 61:3; Jeremiah 6:26; Ezekiel 28:18; Malachi 4:3; Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13; 2 Peter 2:6). Consider when a city was destroyed by siege or a body burned in war or because of decay, it would turn to ash (Amos 2:1-3; 1 Samuel 31:8-13). Isaiah even parallels idolatry, false worship, and a deluded heart to one who “feeds on ashes”, as if they live on self-destructiveness, and that “he cannot save himself” from destruction (Isaiah 44:20). As a symbol, then, being covered in ashes makes a lot of sense as an outward expression of repentance in the face of imminent doom, calamity, or destruction, either to acknowledge God’s intending judgment[1], or even as a way of expressing destruction that has been thrown upon you in some sense. Consider Tamar who poured ashes over her head after she was raped by her half-brother Amnon, effectively destroying her life and reputation, so she expressed her deep anguish by heaping destruction all over her face (2 Samuel 13:11-14, 19)[2]. Or Job who lost everything – family, livestock, home, prosperity, reputation – and reduces his life to ashes and repents in ashes (Job 30:19, 42:6). Or when Jesus says that if the miracles performed in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, “they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” (Luke 10:13) Ashes show the acknowledgement of destruction.

Therefore, to repent in ashes is a visual marker for a change of heart, as much as it about acknowledging God’s authority as Judge and what we deserve given our sin nature: destruction (cf. Daniel 9:3). But why would one repent in their destruction, then? Isn’t destruction something that happens to you? And isn’t repenting in dust the same thing, acknowledging our inevitable death, ‘for dust we are and to dust we will return’. It boils down to eschatological imagery.