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). 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 (Esther 4:1-3 Job 2:8 Isaiah 33:12, 61:3 Jeremiah 6:26, 31:40 Ezekiel 28:18 Malachi 4:3 Matthew 11:21 Luke 10:13 2 Peter 2:6). The fact that they are used together is no coincidence. 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. If dust covers the meaningful spirit behind repentance, why repent in ashes, too? Ashes While the word dust carries significant prophetic symbolism throughout Scripture, what I often overlooked was the meaning of ashes. The house is not built to last because it is not built on the everlasting (Matthew 7:24-27 Mark 7:8). 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 ” is not only foolish but foundationless, so that during times of trouble or judgment, the house will fall. 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). 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. We also 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 (Joshua 7:6 1 Samuel 4:12 2 Samuel 15:32 Nehemiah 9:1 Job 2:12, 42:6).Ĭovering 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. For instance, when we see ancient pagan cultures like Nineveh repent, they do so in “dust” and sackcloth (Jonah 3:6), acknowledging that they will be reduced to dust, binding back the consequence of Genesis 3:19. 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 Jeremiah 17:13 Daniel 12:2). The functional difference between these kinds of earth is no secret, of course, and it carries over into prophetic etymology. 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. 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). He uses the earthly elements, specifically dust, to express mankind as a vast whole across the ages. 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. 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”. 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. 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). To repent in “dust and ashes” is now an iconic Biblical symbol. While studying Genesis, Job, and Revelation, I came across, what I think, is a very interesting prophetic parallel.