Job ends his long argument with God by saying he will “repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Across the Bible ashes mark grief and humility. Tamar puts them on her head in her shame (2 Samuel 13:19), Daniel prays “with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3), and the king of Nineveh sits in them after hearing Jonah’s word (Jonah 3:6). Jesus says Tyre and Sidon would have repented “in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21). In Numbers 19 ashes have another job: gathered from a burnt heifer, they are mixed with running water for those who are unclean.
10 verses
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.
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.
And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:
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.
So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face.
And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
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.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
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).
William Smith, 1884
The ashes on the altar of burnt offering were gathered into a cavity in its surface. The ashes of a red heifer burnt entire, according to regulations prescribed in Numb. 19, had the ceremonial efficacy of purifying the unclean, (Hebrews 9:13) but of polluting the clean. [SACRIFICE] Ashes about the person, especially on the head, were used as a sign of sorrow. [MOURNING]