He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
- KJV He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
- NKJV He has cast me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes.
- NASB “He has thrown me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes.
- NLT He has thrown me into the mud. I’m nothing more than dust and ashes.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job says God has cast him into the mire so that he has become like dust and ashes. It expresses his sense of humiliation and degradation.
Overview
Job attributes his lowered state directly to God, feeling thrown down into mud and reduced to the dust and ashes that symbolize mourning and mortality. The phrase recalls man's creation from dust and his return to it, underscoring human frailty. Such honest acknowledgment of being brought low prepares the way for the gospel hope that the One who formed us from dust will also raise us up through the risen Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 9:31then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.
- Ps 69:14Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.
- Job 42:6Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
- Gen 18:27Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—
- Jer 38:6So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
- Ps 69:1–2For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David. Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck.
- Job 2:8And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 30:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.