Job 30:19

“He hath cast me into the mire, etc.] As Jeremiah was literally; here it is to be understood in a figurative sense; not of the mire of sin, into which God casts none, men fall into it of themselves, but of the mire of affliction and calamity; (see <194002>Psalm 40:2 69:2); and which Job here ascribes to God; and whereby he was in as mean, abject, and contemptible a condition, as if he had been thrown into a kennel, and rolled in it; and he speaks of it as an act of God, done with contempt of him, and indignation at him, as he apprehended it. Some Jewish writers f1106 interpret it, “he taught me in the mire”, or “it taught me”; his disease, his ulcers taught him to sit down in the mire, or in…”

“God is poetically said to do that which the mourner had done to himself (Job 2:8). With lying in the ashes he had become, like them, in dirty color.”

“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.” return to 'Top of Page'”

“30:19 dust and ashes: Earlier, Job was sitting “among the ashes” in anguish (2:8); later, he would “sit in dust and ashes to show . . . repentance” (42:6).”

“cast me: Job 9:31; Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2; Jer 38:6 dust: Job 2:8, Job 42:6; Gen 18:27 Job 30:20”