Job 30:19
in Job 30He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He hath cast me into the mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.
KJV
He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
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This verse in Job 30
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
He hath cast me into the mire - That is, God has done it. In this book the name of God is often understood where the speaker seems to avoid it, in order that it may not be needlessly repeated. On the meaning of the expression here, see the notes at Job 9:31. And I am become like dust and ashes - Either in appearance, or I am regarded as being as worthless as the mire of the streets. Rosenmuller supposes it means, “I am more like a mass of inanimate matter than a living man.”
This site's exposition
like dust and ashes
The phrase “like dust and ashes” stands in three places: Genesis 18:27, Job's ruin here, and his repentance at 42:6. Henry reads its return at the close as deliberate, the humility Job suffers here under affliction becoming humility freely offered in worship. Delitzsch notes that the image is Job's own.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"I have become like dust and ashes," that is, I have been rendered contemptible to them as if I were dust, and I appear to be similar to vile mud. Emmanuel too, even though he was God, was thoughtlessly considered to be unworthy when he …
The Medieval Church2 voices
From the punishment of this kind he shows that he has become abominable to men, and so he says, "I have been made equal to filth," so that no one wants to approach me because of the great corruption and the number of the worms, …
I was likened to mire, and became like dust and ashes. Since in the judgment of lost sinners the Holy Church of the Elect is 'likened to mire,' because it is trodden under and despised in time; it is 'compared to dust and ashes,' because while they do not see her interior good things, they calculate that she has been brought to those bad things alone, which they see brought to view in her in the body.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Instead of sweet smell, there shall be a stench, Isa. iii. We are but dust and ashes at the best, and our bodies are vile bodies; but we are apt to forget it, till God, by some sore disease, makes us sensibly to feel and own what we are. " I have become already like that dust and ashes into which I must shortly be resolved: wherever I go I carry my grave about with me." 4.
), and seemed to trample on him when he had him there. This cut him to the heart more than any thing else, (1.) That God did not appear for him. He addressed himself to him, but gained no grant--appealed to him, but gained no sentence; he was very importunate in his applications, but in vain (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
1 more voice on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He hath cast me into the mire,....
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֹרָ֥נִי | horani | he has thrown me | H3384 → | 80 times |
| לַחֹ֑מֶר | lachomer | to the mud | H2563 → | 31 times |
| וָ֝אֶתְמַשֵּׁ֗ל | vaetmashel | and I have become like | H4911 → | |
| כֶּעָפָ֥ר | keafar | like <the> dust | H6083 → | 110 times |
| וָאֵֽפֶר׃ | vaefer | and ash[es] | H665 → | 22 times |
הֹרָ֥נִיhe has thrown me
horaniH3384 →80 times
לַחֹ֑מֶרto the mud
lachomerH2563 →31 times
וָ֝אֶתְמַשֵּׁ֗לand I have become like
vaetmashelH4911 →
כֶּעָפָ֥רlike <the> dust
keafarH6083 →110 times
וָאֵֽפֶר׃and ash[es]
vaeferH665 →22 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 69:14Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.
it leads to
- Psalms 144:7
Reach down from on high; set me free and rescue me from the deep waters, from the grasp of foreigners,
- Psalms 109:21
But You, O GOD, the Lord, deal kindly with me for the sake of Your name; deliver me by the goodness of Your loving devotion.
- Psalms 144:7
Through
Job 42:6Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
it leads to
- Ezra 9:6
and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
- 1 Timothy 1:13–16
I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.
- James 4:7–10
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- Job 40:3–4
Then Job answered the LORD:
- Daniel 9:3
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
- Ezra 9:6
Through
Genesis 18:27Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—
it leads to
- Isaiah 6:5
Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD…
- Isaiah 6:5
About Job
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 30:19; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XX; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.