019. Ashes
Ashes
Ashes, in the symbolic language of Scripture, denotes human frailty, as in Genesis 18:27 : "I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes;" deep humiliation, as in Esther 4:1 : "Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes." To sit in ashes was a token of mourning, as in Job 2:8 : "And he sat down among the ashes." Feeding on ashes appears to express grief. Psalms 102:9 : "For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my bread with weeping." There was a sort of lustral water, made with the ashes of the heifer sacrificed on the great day of expiation. These ashes were distributed to the people, and the water as well as the ashes used in purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave."