Ashes
Summary
Residue from burning, used symbolically in Scripture to represent mourning, humiliation, and repentance, as well as literally in certain purification rituals.
☩Symbol of Mourning and Humiliation
Putting ashes on one's head or sitting in ashes was a powerful expression of grief, humiliation, and distress throughout the ancient Near East. When Tamar was violated by Amnon, she put ashes on her head as a sign of her desolation. When the Jews learned of Haman's decree to destroy them, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and many Jews throughout the provinces fasted, wept, and lay in sackcloth and ashes. Job, in his affliction, sat among the ashes, scraping his sores with a potsherd.
☩Sign of Repentance
Ashes combined with sackcloth were the standard expression of deep repentance in Scripture. Job repented 'in dust and ashes.' Daniel sought the Lord with prayer and fasting, in sackcloth and ashes. When Jonah preached to Nineveh, the king arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes—a sign of corporate repentance that moved God to spare the city. Jesus warned Chorazin and Bethsaida that if His mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
☩Ritual Use
The ashes of the red heifer were mixed with water and used for purification from defilement by contact with a dead body. This 'water of purification' cleansed those who had become ceremonially unclean. The author of Hebrews references this ritual, noting that 'the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh,' but pointing to the superior cleansing power of Christ's blood.
Related Verses42 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Ashes," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Ashes," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).