ashes Summary and Overview

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. (Compare Hos. 12:1).

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, #Heb 9:13| but of polluting the clean. [SACRIFICE] Ashes about the person, especially on the head, were used as a sign of sorrow. [MOURNING]

ASH'ES . Gen 18:27. To cover the head with ashes, or to sit in ashes, betokens self-abhorrence, humiliation, extreme grief, or penitence. 2 Sam 13:19; Esth 4:3; Job 2:8; Jer 6:26; Lam 3:16; Jon 3:6; Matt 11:21. The ashes of the altar of burnt-offering on the days of the great festivals were suffered to accumulate, and then taken away the next day by a priest chosen by lot to this work. There was a sort of lye made of the ashes of the heifer sacrificed on the great day of expiation, which was used for ceremonial purification. Num 19:17,1 Sam 30:18. See Heifer.

Sitting down in, or covering one's self with, is the symbol of mourning (Job 2:8; Job 42:6; Esther 4:1; Isaiah 61:3; Matthew 11:21). To eat asides expresses figuratively mourning is one's food, i.e. one's perpetual portion (Psalm 102:9). "He feedeth on ashes," i.e., tries to feed his soul with what is at once humiliating and unsatisfying, on an idol which ought to have been reduced to ashes, like the rest of the tree of which it is made (Isaiah 44:20). The ashes of a red heifer burnt entire (Numbers 19), when sprinkled upon, purified ceremonially the unclean (Hebrews 9:13) but defiled the clean person.