dust Summary and Overview

Storms of sand and dust sometimes overtake Eastern travellers. They are very dreadful, many perishing under them. Jehovah threatens to bring on the land of Israel, as a punishment for forsaking him, a rain of "powder and dust" (Deut. 28:24). To cast dust on the head was a sign of mourning (Josh. 7:6); and to sit in dust, of extreme affliction (Isa. 47:1). "Dust" is used to denote the grave (Job 7:21). "To shake off the dust from one's feet" against another is to renounce all future intercourse with him (Matt. 10:14; Acts 13:51). To "lick the dust" is a sign of abject submission (Ps. 72:9); and to throw dust at one is a sign of abhorrence (2 Sam. 16:13; compare Acts 22:23).

[MOURNING]

DUST . "To shake off the dust of one's feet" against another, Matt 10:14; Mark 6:11; Acts 13:51, was expressive of entire renunciation, because it conveyed the idea that "those against whom it was directed were so unworthy that it was defiling to one to allow so much as a particle of the soil to cleave to his garments." The custom is supposed to have been common among the Jews, when they had set a foot on heathen ground, to shake otf the dust, so as to carry nothing unclean or polluting into their own land. Dust thrown into the air, 2 Sam 16:13; Acts 22:23, was an expression of rage and threatening, while the very act probably increased the passionate hatred. "Dust and ashes" are coupled together as a phrase describing man's feebleness as contrasted with divine strength. Gen 18:27; Job 30:19. Dust, Rain of. Deut 28:24. In Judaea or its immediate vicinity are plains or deserts of fine sand, which when agitated by a violent wind makes most terrific and desolating storms. Eastern travellers describe them particularly, and think them much more dreadful than storms at sea. This fact affords us a striking illustration of the nature and horrors of the plague mentioned in Ex 8:16.

To "shake off dust from one's feet against a city or person" implied a solemn refusal to take anything away, even the very dust of their ground, but to leave it to witness against them (Mark 6:11); shaking off all connection with them, and all responsibility for their guilt and consequent punishment for rejecting the gospel.